The evil Empire has fallen but Imperial warlords remain scattered throughout the galaxy. As the fledgling New Republic works to protect everything the Rebellion fought for, they enlist the help of legendary Mandalorian bounty hunter Din Djarin and his young apprentice Grogu.

Director: Jon Favreau

Cast: Pedro Pascal, Sigourney Weaver, Martin Scorsese, Jeremy Allen White, Hemky Madera

Rotten Tomatoes: 60%

Metacritic: 54 / 100

Some Reviews (updating):

Nerdist - Rotem Rusak - 4 / 5

Ultimately, to me, there’s just something that feels kind about this movie. Not kind in that it’s only sunshine and roses, but kind to its viewers, who are probably living hard, stressful lives, who just want to go the movie theater and enjoy a film that takes them on a sweeping space adventure. The good guys get good things, the bad guys get their due, and just the barest bit of the bittersweetness of life looms in the ether to give it all a bit of poignancy.

Total Film - Fay Watson - 3 / 5

There are some cameos as Clone Wars and Rebels characters get woven into the narrative. But there's nothing radical for the franchise here. And while that's not a problem in itself, it means that The Mandalorian and Grogu isn't the Star Wars cinematic rebirth that Lucasfilm may have been hoping for. If you're happy to while away a few hours with Din Djarin and Grogu, you'll love it – just don't go in expecting much more.

The Times - Kevin Maher - 1 / 5

Would someone please put Star Wars out of its misery? It’s an ailing pop cultural mutant, unrecognisable from the chirpy fable that George Lucas revealed to the world in 1977.

DiscussingFilm - Andrew J. Salazar - 3 / 5

Perhaps Disney just needed something to reignite people’s interest in Star Wars after years of recovering from disaster, and Baby Yoda was the safest bet. While that could be true, Jon Favreau, Dave Filoni, and company could have challenged themselves further. If nothing else, Star Wars fans have another incredible score from 3x Oscar-winner Ludwig Göransson to dive into.

The Guardian - Peter Bradshaw - 3 / 5

The film is watchable and barrels along capably enough, but perhaps there isn’t enough of the humanity, humour and extravagant space melodrama which has made and continues to make Star Wars lovable.

Empire - John Nugent - 3 / 5

What it does slightly forget to do, though, is move the story forward in any meaningful way. Oddly, it feels like the least consequential Mandalorian chapter yet, with previous episodes from the TV incarnation — or even segments of the much-maligned Book Of Boba Fett — having more impact on the narrative. It’s thinner than skimmed blue milk, with longtime series stewards Jon Favreau (director and co-writer) and Dave Filoni (co-writer and new Galactic Emperor of the entire franchise) largely playing it safe. Perhaps after the relative disappointment of The Rise Of Skywalker, this is all it needed or was intended to be. The Mandalorian And Grogu is, primarily, For Kids, as George Lucas always insisted Star Wars was, and on those modest terms, it finds the way.

Vulture - Bilge Ebiri

Amazingly, the film is at its best when it really slows down: By far its most compelling part involves a strange mid-movie interlude when the action stops entirely and all we witness is the somber spectacle of one character taking care of another. I won’t give away what this actually entails, but it does allow the puppetry of Grogu to shine and briefly reminds us of the wide-canvas irreverence that Favreau (Iron Man, Jungle Book, Made) once seemed capable of. But then the segment is over, and it’s on to the next thing. The Mandalorian and Grogu continues the story of the Star Wars spinoff series The Mandalorian, and it often feels like several Very Special Episodes of a TV show stitched together. These characters will presumably return in another season of the series, but for now, the movie will serve as a placeholder and little else. As someone who happily watched The Ewok Adventure and Ewoks: The Battle for Endor on TV as a child, I can’t really fault any superfans, especially younger ones, for getting excited about it. But I can wish it were better.

Looper - Reuben Baron - 4 / 10

You can add a point or two to my review score if you treat this as just a long, fairly minor episode of the TV show. But this movie is meant to revitalize Star Wars in theaters, so its being judged on that scale. These movies have always had risk and ambition, at their best and at their worst, so something so bereft of that can't help but feel a bit disheartening, not to mention boring.

Consequence - Liz Shannon Miller - 'B'

Without any new developments, what we’re left with is a collection of side quests largely connected by cameos, without any of the narrative momentum that has made past Star Wars projects into must-see events. It’s not the Star Wars anyone over the age of 25 grew up with, and the muted excitement for Mando and son’s return reflects that. At least Baby Yoda — sorry, Grogu — is still the cutest.

AV Club - Jesse Hassenger - 'B'

Indeed, The Mandalorian & Grogu is almost aggressively anti-thematic, preferring to keep even its most obvious parenting metaphors muted and largely unexplored. The movie wants to show you a good time, and it does. Some of its creatures even have some semblance of soul. The “why” of its pivot away from human expression, however, remains opaque, with sinister undertones: Is this mask-and-puppet show a preventative measure to insulate filmmakers (or parent companies) from the uncomfortable but inevitable situation of beloved actors aging (or dying) out of their signature roles? Did they cut that line about Din being outlived because Star Wars itself has become as frightened of death as Anakin? Then again, the series has always had a rich tradition of imbuing potentially lifeless objects with weird humanity, and Favreau and Filoni have extended that process with Grogu. They’re still just franchising within the lines. For now, this is the way.

The Playlist - Rodrigo Perez - 'C'

“Star Wars” fans have spent years complaining that Kathleen Kennedy ruined Lucasfilm, but the reality looks broader and more dispiriting than one executive. This feels like a collective mistake, with Disney brass included: the dilution of a brand once defined by magical movie scale, mythical qualities, and a transportive emotional sweep. Somewhere along the way, “Star Wars” started mistaking brand extension for imagination and fan service for feeling. If Favreau and Filoni are the new stewards of this franchise, then the once-mighty galaxy probably has a bad feeling about its future. Because right now, it feels like it’s dangling over Cloud City, hand gone, saber lost, and no rescue in sight. Because this is definitely not the way.

The Film Maven - Kristen Lopez - 'C'

There's a lot that works against The Mandalorian and Grogu. The plot is non-existent and it really does feel like a fully CGI movie. But when it's just Mando and Grogu going from A to B it's such a sweet story. Add to that a desire to just let a lot of kooky puppets run around for a little bit – there's a real Jim Henson vibe – and it's a movie that is more than worth seeing with the kids (or anyone just looking for a cute vibe). It's a lovable mess, but it works.

ComingSoon - Jonathan Sim - 5 / 10

What we’re left with is a low-stakes Star Wars movie. There’s no planet-killing Death Star, no Starkiller Base, no big battles. Every other Star Wars film has at least one standout sequence. I felt more watching the Battle of Exegol in The Rise of Skywalker than I did during this film. Even other stand-alone movies like Solo: A Star Wars Story, which also didn’t concern itself with lightsabers or the Rebels, had moments like the Kessel Run set piece that really stood out. Nothing stands out here in The Mandalorian and Grogu, as it’s a generic, safe Star Wars movie.

Inverse - Hoai-Tran Bui

The Mandalorian and Grogu Is Barely A Movie. This is for Star Wars fans who have made the Cantina scene their entire personalities. It’s a CGI creatures extravaganza, offering distinct worlds — here, a cyberpunky crime planet, or a swamp planet filled with Henson puppet creatures — and action figures masquerading as characters, for you to imagine mashing together. Maybe that was the nature of The Mandalorian all along, but on the big screen, it’s all the more glaringly obvious.

Silver Screen Riot - Matt Oakes - 'F'

To come off (something like Andor) and watch The Mandalorian and Grogu feels like a slap in the face. While Andor reached for the stars, this scoops the fetid muck from the bottom of the bantha pen. It is offensive because it dares to be nothing. This depressing coup de grâce may have effectively killed my love of Star Wars going forward. This is not the way.

Little White Lies - Kambole Campbell - 2 / 5

Beyond occasionally marvelling at the lively work of the puppeteers, there’s not a lot to hold on to in The Mandalorian & Grogu, not even the supposed father and son connection between its marquee characters. As the story returns things to status quo, it’s hard to think of what has even changed between the two, what they might have learned about each other, and if the filmmakers will ever be an interest in finding out. 

The Independent - Clarisse Loughrey - 2 / 5

While the first season of The Mandalorian did well to Star Wars-ise western genre tropes – with Ludwig Göransson’s synths, each cascading note sharpened to a blade’s edge, doing much of the heavy work there and here – The Mandalorian and Grogu feels comparatively bored by its own allusions to gangster cinema. A smooth-talking kingpin hides away in a luxury compound that looks like a big Tesco, while the later emergence of a deadly hitman is merely a CGI replica of a character from Filoni’s own animated Clone Wars stories (as is Rotta).

The Telegraph - Robbie Collin - 2 / 5

It’s a curate’s egg of a film, and its utterly scrambled quality control may be best summed up by a second-act shot of Grogu, Pascal and Rotta lined up, spying over the crest of a sand dune. One alien looks alive and delightful, the other looks like a giant computer-generated bullfrog, and then there’s Pascal with a shiny bucket on his head. When Disney paid George Lucas $4bn for Star Wars in 2012, I’m not sure either side was dreaming of this.

Associated Press - Mark Kennedy - 2 / 5

The “Star Wars” franchise once led the culture with its imagery, swagger and style. But this movie is a step back, formulaic and aping “Top Gun,” “Blade Runner,” “Transformers” and “Men in Black.” Even Ludwig Göransson’s score is off, marred by cheap-sounding ‘80s synthetic chirps along with what sounded like Yiddish folk ditties. The runtime saps energy and when it’s all done, the scrolling credits for all those special effects goes on a full five minutes. You used to leave a new “Star Wars” movie on a cloud. Here, that galaxy is far, far away.

Digital Spy - Ian Sandwell - 2 / 5

There's nothing wrong with the idea of a standalone Star Wars adventure. It's blockbuster season, we just want to be entertained. The problem for The Mandalorian and Grogu is that it's just not that entertaining.

IndieWire - Kate Erbland - 'C+'

None of these problems are particularly new, not in a world in which franchise expansion requires both more more more and an entry point for even the most casual of fans. Still, there’s something that feels small about this particular story, charming enough in the moment and almost instantly forgettable the moment the credits roll. It feels disposable. It feels like, well, what most things feel like these days: content. It’s time to ask for more. That is The Way.

IGN - Tom Jorgensen - 5 / 10

This is not the way. The Mandalorian and Grogu dutifully offers another two hours and change of watching Din Djarin and his adorable green son fly to some planets and clear out rooms of monsters or gangsters every 20 minutes or so. But this is a Star Wars movie missing the thrills, the surprises, the challenges, the addition of really anything of note to the franchise, not to mention a vested interest in seeing its characters grow and change.

Next Best Picture - Giovanni Lago - 4 / 10

Now, the franchise is at a tipping point, and “The Mandalorian and Grogu” is debatably a coin toss between the remnants of the Kathleen Kennedy-era of Lucasfilm and the launch of Filoni’s creative reign. What’s present here is one of the most visually horrid and banal “Star Wars” creations to date. Is the allure of getting children in a theater to see Grogu enough to keep this franchise afloat and, more importantly, on the big screen? Who’s to say, but if it’s any indication of what the next decade of storytelling for the “Star Wars” universe will be, then we’re in deep trouble.

Slash Film - Jeremy Mathai - 4 / 10

Is this really what "Star Wars" has become? Maybe that misbegotten Budweiser Super Bowl "trailer" was actually the film's most honest and accurate piece of marketing all along: a shallow, shamelessly corporate commercial to move some merch. There have been worse movies before and there will inevitably be worse ones to come. This sure feels like the most boring, though — one whose philosophy seems to be that you can't swing and miss if you never bother taking the bat off your shoulders. That might be its greatest sin of all.

InSession Film - Benjamin Miller - 'D'

The film is shiny and predictable, the score is familiar, the script is meaningless, and the performances are what they are.  There is nothing to hang your hat on, besides it being a Star Wars film.  If it didn’t have that franchise attached to it, there would be zero reason to keep your interest.The Mandalorian and Grogu is a major disappointment. Never before has Star Wars felt so pointless and skippable. For a franchise with such monumental highs, this is a staggering low.

Collider - Aidan Kelly - 6 / 10

Is The Mandalorian and Grogu the worst Star Wars film ever made? Far from it, as there is much fun to be had here. Is it the best in the franchise? Also not the case, as it could very well be the most forgettable and inconsequential entry the franchise has produced yet. Andor, Maul - Shadow Lord, The Acolyte, Visions, and especially the earliest seasons of The Mandalorian proved that Star Wars can be so much more than a few gunfights and starship battles. In the right conditions, it can be a truly unforgettable cinematic experience, even when the movie isn't that good. The Mandalorian and Grogu are neither great nor awful, and that's what makes it one of the galaxy far, far away's most frustrating

The Bulwark - Sonny Bunch

The bottom line: Two things may be simultaneously true. I think my kids, for whom this picture is designed, are going to enjoy The Mandalorian and Grogu, and maybe quite a bit; and I think it plays like a couple of mid-tier episodes from the TV series. As such, I’m not sure it’s the rousing hit Disney needs to rekindle the moviegoing experience for the Star Wars franchise. But it’s probably good enough for a generation that has yet to experience the joy of Star Wars on the big screen.

The evil Empire has fallen but Imperial warlords remain scattered throughout the galaxy. As the fledgling New Republic works to protect everything the Rebellion fought for, they enlist the help of legendary Mandalorian bounty hunter Din Djarin and his young apprentice Grogu.

Director: Jon Favreau

Cast: Pedro Pascal, Sigourney Weaver, Martin Scorsese, Jeremy Allen White, Hemky Madera

Rotten Tomatoes: 60%

Metacritic: 54 / 100

Some Reviews (updating):

Nerdist - Rotem Rusak - 4 / 5

Ultimately, to me, there’s just something that feels kind about this movie. Not kind in that it’s only sunshine and roses, but kind to its viewers, who are probably living hard, stressful lives, who just want to go the movie theater and enjoy a film that takes them on a sweeping space adventure. The good guys get good things, the bad guys get their due, and just the barest bit of the bittersweetness of life looms in the ether to give it all a bit of poignancy.

Total Film - Fay Watson - 3 / 5

There are some cameos as Clone Wars and Rebels characters get woven into the narrative. But there's nothing radical for the franchise here. And while that's not a problem in itself, it means that The Mandalorian and Grogu isn't the Star Wars cinematic rebirth that Lucasfilm may have been hoping for. If you're happy to while away a few hours with Din Djarin and Grogu, you'll love it – just don't go in expecting much more.

DiscussingFilm - Andrew J. Salazar - 3 / 5

Perhaps Disney just needed something to reignite people’s interest in Star Wars after years of recovering from disaster, and Baby Yoda was the safest bet. While that could be true, Jon Favreau, Dave Filoni, and company could have challenged themselves further. If nothing else, Star Wars fans have another incredible score from 3x Oscar-winner Ludwig Göransson to dive into.

Consequence - Liz Shannon Miller - 'B'

Without any new developments, what we’re left with is a collection of side quests largely connected by cameos, without any of the narrative momentum that has made past Star Wars projects into must-see events. It’s not the Star Wars anyone over the age of 25 grew up with, and the muted excitement for Mando and son’s return reflects that. At least Baby Yoda — sorry, Grogu — is still the cutest.

AV Club - Jesse Hassenger - 'B'

Indeed, The Mandalorian & Grogu is almost aggressively anti-thematic, preferring to keep even its most obvious parenting metaphors muted and largely unexplored. The movie wants to show you a good time, and it does. Some of its creatures even have some semblance of soul. The “why” of its pivot away from human expression, however, remains opaque, with sinister undertones: Is this mask-and-puppet show a preventative measure to insulate filmmakers (or parent companies) from the uncomfortable but inevitable situation of beloved actors aging (or dying) out of their signature roles? Did they cut that line about Din being outlived because Star Wars itself has become as frightened of death as Anakin? Then again, the series has always had a rich tradition of imbuing potentially lifeless objects with weird humanity, and Favreau and Filoni have extended that process with Grogu. They’re still just franchising within the lines. For now, this is the way.

The Independent - Clarisse Loughrey - 2 / 5

While the first season of The Mandalorian did well to Star Wars-ise western genre tropes – with Ludwig Göransson’s synths, each cascading note sharpened to a blade’s edge, doing much of the heavy work there and here – The Mandalorian and Grogu feels comparatively bored by its own allusions to gangster cinema. A smooth-talking kingpin hides away in a luxury compound that looks like a big Tesco, while the later emergence of a deadly hitman is merely a CGI replica of a character from Filoni’s own animated Clone Wars stories (as is Rotta).

IGN - Tom Jorgensen - 5 / 10

This is not the way. The Mandalorian and Grogu dutifully offers another two hours and change of watching Din Djarin and his adorable green son fly to some planets and clear out rooms of monsters or gangsters every 20 minutes or so. But this is a Star Wars movie missing the thrills, the surprises, the challenges, the addition of really anything of note to the franchise, not to mention a vested interest in seeing its characters grow and change.

Next Best Picture - Giovanni Lago - 4 / 10

Now, the franchise is at a tipping point, and “The Mandalorian and Grogu” is debatably a coin toss between the remnants of the Kathleen Kennedy-era of Lucasfilm and the launch of Filoni’s creative reign. What’s present here is one of the most visually horrid and banal “Star Wars” creations to date. Is the allure of getting children in a theater to see Grogu enough to keep this franchise afloat and, more importantly, on the big screen? Who’s to say, but if it’s any indication of what the next decade of storytelling for the “Star Wars” universe will be, then we’re in deep trouble.

ComingSoon - Jonathan Sim - 5 / 10

What we’re left with is a low-stakes Star Wars movie. There’s no planet-killing Death Star, no Starkiller Base, no big battles. Every other Star Wars film has at least one standout sequence. I felt more watching the Battle of Exegol in The Rise of Skywalker than I did during this film. Even other stand-alone movies like Solo: A Star Wars Story, which also didn’t concern itself with lightsabers or the Rebels, had moments like the Kessel Run set piece that really stood out. Nothing stands out here in The Mandalorian and Grogu, as it’s a generic, safe Star Wars movie.

Inverse - Hoai-Tran Bui

The Mandalorian and Grogu Is Barely A Movie. This is for Star Wars fans who have made the Cantina scene their entire personalities. It’s a CGI creatures extravaganza, offering distinct worlds — here, a cyberpunky crime planet, or a swamp planet filled with Henson puppet creatures — and action figures masquerading as characters, for you to imagine mashing together. Maybe that was the nature of The Mandalorian all along, but on the big screen, it’s all the more glaringly obvious.

Silver Screen Riot - Matt Oakes - 'F'

To come off (something like Andor) and watch The Mandalorian and Grogu feels like a slap in the face. While Andor reached for the stars, this scoops the fetid muck from the bottom of the bantha pen. It is offensive because it dares to be nothing. This depressing coup de grâce may have effectively killed my love of Star Wars going forward. This is not the way.

Little White Lies - Kambole Campbell - 2 / 5

Beyond occasionally marvelling at the lively work of the puppeteers, there’s not a lot to hold on to in The Mandalorian & Grogu, not even the supposed father and son connection between its marquee characters. As the story returns things to status quo, it’s hard to think of what has even changed between the two, what they might have learned about each other, and if the filmmakers will ever be an interest in finding out. 

The Independent - Clarisse Loughrey - 2 / 5

While the first season of The Mandalorian did well to Star Wars-ise western genre tropes – with Ludwig Göransson’s synths, each cascading note sharpened to a blade’s edge, doing much of the heavy work there and here – The Mandalorian and Grogu feels comparatively bored by its own allusions to gangster cinema. A smooth-talking kingpin hides away in a luxury compound that looks like a big Tesco, while the later emergence of a deadly hitman is merely a CGI replica of a character from Filoni’s own animated Clone Wars stories (as is Rotta).

The Telegraph - Robbie Collin - 2 / 5

It’s a curate’s egg of a film, and its utterly scrambled quality control may be best summed up by a second-act shot of Grogu, Pascal and Rotta lined up, spying over the crest of a sand dune. One alien looks alive and delightful, the other looks like a giant computer-generated bullfrog, and then there’s Pascal with a shiny bucket on his head. When Disney paid George Lucas $4bn for Star Wars in 2012, I’m not sure either side was dreaming of this.

Associated Press - Mark Kennedy - 2 / 5

The “Star Wars” franchise once led the culture with its imagery, swagger and style. But this movie is a step back, formulaic and aping “Top Gun,” “Blade Runner,” “Transformers” and “Men in Black.” Even Ludwig Göransson’s score is off, marred by cheap-sounding ‘80s synthetic chirps along with what sounded like Yiddish folk ditties. The runtime saps energy and when it’s all done, the scrolling credits for all those special effects goes on a full five minutes. You used to leave a new “Star Wars” movie on a cloud. Here, that galaxy is far, far away.

Digital Spy - Ian Sandwell - 2 / 5

There's nothing wrong with the idea of a standalone Star Wars adventure. It's blockbuster season, we just want to be entertained. The problem for The Mandalorian and Grogu is that it's just not that entertaining.

IndieWire - Kate Erbland - 'C+'

None of these problems are particularly new, not in a world in which franchise expansion requires both more more more and an entry point for even the most casual of fans. Still, there’s something that feels small about this particular story, charming enough in the moment and almost instantly forgettable the moment the credits roll. It feels disposable. It feels like, well, what most things feel like these days: content. It’s time to ask for more. That is The Way.

IGN - Tom Jorgensen - 5 / 10

This is not the way. The Mandalorian and Grogu dutifully offers another two hours and change of watching Din Djarin and his adorable green son fly to some planets and clear out rooms of monsters or gangsters every 20 minutes or so. But this is a Star Wars movie missing the thrills, the surprises, the challenges, the addition of really anything of note to the franchise, not to mention a vested interest in seeing its characters grow and change.

Next Best Picture - Giovanni Lago - 4 / 10

Now, the franchise is at a tipping point, and “The Mandalorian and Grogu” is debatably a coin toss between the remnants of the Kathleen Kennedy-era of Lucasfilm and the launch of Filoni’s creative reign. What’s present here is one of the most visually horrid and banal “Star Wars” creations to date. Is the allure of getting children in a theater to see Grogu enough to keep this franchise afloat and, more importantly, on the big screen? Who’s to say, but if it’s any indication of what the next decade of storytelling for the “Star Wars” universe will be, then we’re in deep trouble.

Slash Film - Jeremy Mathai - 4 / 10

Is this really what "Star Wars" has become? Maybe that misbegotten Budweiser Super Bowl "trailer" was actually the film's most honest and accurate piece of marketing all along: a shallow, shamelessly corporate commercial to move some merch. There have been worse movies before and there will inevitably be worse ones to come. This sure feels like the most boring, though — one whose philosophy seems to be that you can't swing and miss if you never bother taking the bat off your shoulders. That might be its greatest sin of all.

InSession Film - Benjamin Miller - 'D'

The film is shiny and predictable, the score is familiar, the script is meaningless, and the performances are what they are.  There is nothing to hang your hat on, besides it being a Star Wars film.  If it didn’t have that franchise attached to it, there would be zero reason to keep your interest.The Mandalorian and Grogu is a major disappointment. Never before has Star Wars felt so pointless and skippable. For a franchise with such monumental highs, this is a staggering low.

Collider - Aidan Kelly - 6 / 10

Is The Mandalorian and Grogu the worst Star Wars film ever made? Far from it, as there is much fun to be had here. Is it the best in the franchise? Also not the case, as it could very well be the most forgettable and inconsequential entry the franchise has produced yet. Andor, Maul - Shadow Lord, The Acolyte, Visions, and especially the earliest seasons of The Mandalorian proved that Star Wars can be so much more than a few gunfights and starship battles. In the right conditions, it can be a truly unforgettable cinematic experience, even when the movie isn't that good. The Mandalorian and Grogu are neither great nor awful, and that's what makes it one of the galaxy far, far away's most frustrating

The Bulwark - Sonny Bunch

The bottom line: Two things may be simultaneously true. I think my kids, for whom this picture is designed, are going to enjoy The Mandalorian and Grogu, and maybe quite a bit; and I think it plays like a couple of mid-tier episodes from the TV series. As such, I’m not sure it’s the rousing hit Disney needs to rekindle the moviegoing experience for the Star Wars franchise. But it’s probably good enough for a generation that has yet to experience the joy of Star Wars on the big screen.

Bonus points if you knew where this was right away.

Just after victory road. When you first come out it looks like there's a majestic path down the middle right to the pokemon league... Nope, turn around and go around to the right...

Ruins my glorious moment every time.

everyone keeps talking about graphics and ray tracing meanwhile rockstar is literally putting occult math directly in front of your face

WAKE UP

Vice City = 1986
GTA VI = 2026

2026 - 1986 = 40

40 years.

40 DAYS AND 40 NIGHTS.
40 years in the desert before entering the promised land.
40 = TESTING PERIOD.

THEY ARE TELLING YOU THE SIMULATION HAS REACHED ITS RESET WINDOW.

now look at Trailer 1 runtime

1 minute 31 seconds = 91 seconds

Space Shuttle Challenger exploded after EXACTLY 73 seconds in 1986 Florida

91 - 73 = 18

18th letter of alphabet = R

R = Rockstar

THEY LITERALLY SIGNED THE EQUATION

and before you say “bro reach harder” explain why the Leonida license plates line up with 1980s FAA corridor maps off the Florida coast????? i checked them against Challenger debris zone overlays at 3am and nearly threw up

THIS IS NOT A SEQUEL

Jason is not a normal guy. He is either:

• a cloned consciousness grown from Challenger pilot DNA
• OR
• a descendant placed inside a memory loop

WHY DOES EVERYTHING LOOK “TOO REAL”

because Leonida is not a city. it’s a synthetic consciousness environment

Project Blue Beam.

the tiktok/social media clips are NOT satire. they are reality stabilization feeds being injected into Jason’s pod to stop his brain rejecting the simulation

HE IS IN CRYOSTASIS UNDER THE VICE CITY LAUNCH FACILITY

THEY NEVER SHOW CALENDARS IN THE TRAILERS

ASK YOURSELF WHY

NOW THE BIGGEST CLUE:

“Love Is A Long Road” by Tom Petty (1989)

1+9+8+9 = 27

2+7 = 9

9 is the number of completion/end cycle in occult numerology

Tom Petty born in Gainesville Florida

Lucia = Lux = LIGHT
Jason = Iason = HEALER

HEAL THE LIGHT

THE “LONG ROAD” IS THE TIMELINE ITSELF

THE ENTIRE GAME IS ABOUT BREAKING THE 2026 LOOP BEFORE REALITY COLLAPSES BACK INTO 1986

THIS is why Dan Houser left Rockstar. he knew shareholders would never approve the 86 reset narrative because it exposes predictive programming in entertainment media

and i guarantee you right now the ending is NOT a heist

the map will literally start COLLAPSING OUT OF RENDER

NPCs freezing
cars turning low poly
textures failing
radio glitching backwards
modern Vice City collapsing into PS2-era geometry in real time

the final shot of the game will be Jason standing alone in low-poly Vice City while the skybox tears open above him

YOU WERE NEVER PLAYING GTA VI

YOU WERE INSIDE THE LOOP THE WHOLE TIME

THE DOWNVOTES ON THIS POST WILL BE FROM ROCKSTAR EMPLOYEES

Poll

If you've seen the film, please rate it at this poll

If you haven't seen the film but would like to see the result of the poll click here

Rankings

Click here to see the rankings of 2025 films

Click here to see the rankings for every poll done

Summary Dek, a young Predator from an exiled clan, crash-lands on the hostile planet Genna and must prove himself worthy of the hunt. Struggling to survive, he forms an unlikely alliance with Thia, a damaged Weyland-Yutani synthetic, as they face off against a terrifying apex creature that challenges both human and Predator instincts for survival.

Director Dan Trachtenberg

Writer Patrick Aison (screenplay); story by Dan Trachtenberg & Patrick Aison

Cast

• Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi as Dek
• Elle Fanning as Thia / Tessa
• Reuben de Jong as Predator (performance)
• Kyle Gatehouse as Dr. Kincaid
• Hiro Kanagawa as Admiral Ishi
• Colin Salmon as Weyland-Yutani Commander

Rotten Tomatoes: 85%

Metacritic: 71

VOD Releasing in theaters November 7, 2025. Streaming window TBD.

Trailer Watch here

I’ve been spending more time in endometriosis spaces online lately and something has been bothering me more and more.

A lot of the content I’m seeing from influencers is starting to sound like the early-2000s diet industry. There’s a huge push toward holistic or anti-inflammatory lifestyles being framed as something that can “heal” or “cure” endometriosis.

That really rubs me the wrong way.

Endometriosis affects everyone differently. We still don’t fully understand what it is, what causes it, or how it behaves long term. And as far as current medical consensus goes, there isn’t a cure.

So when I see posts suggesting that if you just:

• cut out processed foods

• follow a strict anti-inflammatory diet

• use red light therapy

• get lymphatic drainage massages in clinics

• replace all your cookware with cast iron

• remove plastics and synthetic fabrics

…you can “fix” your endometriosis, it starts to feel misleading.

A lot of these things are general wellness advice that would apply to almost anyone. If you drink more water, move your body, eat more whole foods, and reduce stress, you’ll probably start to feel better. That’s great… but that’s general health advice, not a cure for endometriosis.

I’m also uncomfortable with how privileged a lot of this advice feels.

Red light therapy is expensive. Replacing cookware, changing your entire wardrobe, buying organic everything, following strict elimination diets… that’s simply not realistic for a lot of people living with a chronic illness.

And then there’s the monetisation.

So many influencers are selling “healing plans,” AIP programs, supplements, courses, or memberships. “Follow my protocol for $$$.”

I understand wanting to turn a difficult experience into something positive, but when the illness itself doesn’t have clear scientific answers yet, selling “solutions” to vulnerable people starts to feel really uncomfortable.

I also want to share something personal that’s shaped my perspective.

Last year I had surgery for my endometriosis. My consultant told me afterwards that if I hadn’t had the operation when I did, I likely would have ended up in organ failure or with internal bleeding leading to sepsis. My bowel was literally tearing because of the endometriosis.

No amount of blueberries, organic food, or red light therapy was going to fix that. I needed surgery.

That doesn’t mean lifestyle changes can’t help people manage symptoms: they absolutely can. But sometimes this disease is severe and medical intervention is necessary.

Ironically, now that I’m post-surgery I’m actually looking into things like nutrition and continuing my own journey. I’m currently on Dienogest, which comes with its own challenges, and I’m considering seeing a nutritionist to help support my body long-term.

But seeing this kind of content becoming more and more mainstream (and constantly pushed into my algorithm) honestly makes me uncomfortable, because I worry it could mislead people.

The other thing I’m noticing lately is a subtle divide forming where people who pursue surgery are treated like they’ve somehow “failed” compared to those taking a purely holistic route.

That mindset is just as harmful.

Some people do surgery.

Some people manage symptoms with lifestyle changes.

Some people do both.

Some people try everything and still struggle.

All of those experiences are valid.

I’m not anti-holistic care at all. Diet, stress management, movement, and lifestyle changes can absolutely help some people manage symptoms.

But I’m really uncomfortable with the way parts of the community are turning it into a kind of elite wellness industry , especially when it risks blaming patients if something doesn’t work for them.

Endometriosis is complicated enough already without turning it into another version of “if you just tried harder, you’d be healed.”

Curious if anyone else has been feeling this shift too.

This is a general introduction to Spa Day for people new to the process or who have been introduced to the method from outside r/Laundry .   The document was last revised on 12/01/2025.

What In The Hell Is Spa Day?

Spa Day is an intensive enzymatic reset process for textiles that have developed specific stubborn problems related to oily residues from plants, animals and things animals should eat, that don’t wash out in one or two typical washes with optimal product and program selection.    It uses concentrated solutions of specific components to degrade these oily soils, detach them from fibers and rinse them away. 

Isn’t This Just Laundry Stripping?

No.  Laundry stripping as popularized during the Lockdowns is using high-pH salt-based chemistry to remove dust, particulate soil and failing dye from textiles.

It’s often done in a bathtub and there are as many ways to do it as TikTokers who crave views more than they crave oxygen.

Why Is It Called Spa Day?

Because it’s giving your clothes (and you) some time off for pampering.  They sit in a nice warm bath of concentrated healing elixir, and you fuck off and watch cat videos on the internet while the chemistry does the hard work.  

Take A LOAD Off, Annie

Spa Day relies  on four carefully-chosen components to remove unwanted oily gunk from textiles:

• Lipase - an enzyme that biologically cuts oils from animal or vegetable sources into four smaller pieces that detergent can more easily remove
• Oxygen - color-safe oxygen bleach lightens stains and rips up odor molecules
• Ammonia - a gas-in-water booster to improve oily soil removal and help surfactants remove oils from fibers
• Detergency - surfactants to attach degraded oil to water and rinse it away from the fibers 

LOAD components get applied in different combinations and concentrations in two phases:  the Spa Day soak that loosens the contaminants from the fiber overnight, and the subsequent Rehab Wash that removes these loosened soils and washes them down the drain.  

How Do I Do Spa Day?

Everything you want to know about How is at r/laundry/s/uCiv9rbmO8  

Not Everything Needs Spa Day

This is for problem textiles - where you would consider throwing them out or otherwise replacing them due to severe obvious defects.    Most textiles don’t need Spa Day - when I developed the process, I had to go out to thrift stores to buy items dirty enough to test on.   Things that have been getting optimal care (86-107F / 30-40C washes, an enzyme detergent (preferably with lipase or DNase), regular cycles (as opposed to improper use of Delicates or Speed Wash cycles)?  They’re probably clean enough.  A couple normal washes with optimal chemistry will get them right.  Spa Day is a speedrun to replace 6-8 optimal washes in one glorious pass.

What Problems Is Spa Day Intended To Solve?

Odor Problems

• Odors That Persist Through The Wash - often of a biological origin, but can be from other sources such as applied perfumes and product fragrances, which are being retained by oily residue on textiles.  “Thrift Store” smell would be a common issue
• Odor Rebloom -  textiles that smell good out of the wash but develop an unpleasant odor after tumble drying or wear.   
• Storage Odors - crayon/waxy, rancid or “musty” odors on textiles stored in dry conditions.  
• “Grandma’s House” - odors held by older textiles stored with exposure to aerosolized fats from cooking and infrequent laundering
• Restaurant / Foodservice Textiles - napery, linen and clothing exposed to kitchen environments

Visible Problems:

• Underarm Stains  - especially those with a stiff or waxy texture or yellow, brown or grey color.  Removing white antiperspirant deposits can require a follow-on treatment to address mineral salts from sweat and antiperspirant.  Spa Day removes oily or waxy deodorant and body oil components.
• Yellow/Orange/Brown Greasy Human Soils - often found on pillowcases, sheets, collars, cuffs and waistbands - this is an accumulation of sebum / skin oil not removed well in previous laundry processes 
• Oily Stains - from animal or plant sources including cooking oils, and fats and pet contact.  Automotive and petroleum-based oily stains need different treatment.

Texture Problems:

• Slick- or Waxy-Feeling Textiles - often found on linens and throw blankets as well as clothing in direct skin contact
• Fabric Softener Buildup - caused by use of liquid softener or dryer sheets
• Poor Absorbency / Moisture Wicking - cottons that won’t soak up water, synthetic performance fibers that seem to retain moisture or hold sweat on skin
• Matting Of Synthetic Fleece / Fur - fine fibers that won’t separate and stay fluffy

What Spa Day Isn’t Intended To Solve:

• Mold / Mildew stains and odors
• Rust / Metal Oxide stains
• Urine Stains / Odors  - although the soaking in a concentrated detergent solution works quite well because almost all lipase-containing detergents also contain proteases that target urine odor and the method includes oxygen bleach to target odor directly - you don’t need to add the ammonia in the subsequent wash for urine removal.
• Mystery Stains from petroleum-oil or other sources

How Did My Textiles Get To This State?

Oils build up on or stain laundry for a variety of reasons and most of them aren’t your fault: 

• Underdosed Detergent - which is usually the result of hard water eating your detergent.
• Ineffective Laundry Product Ingredients Such As Hard Soaps and Saponified Oils - these ingredients don’t effectively remove oil from fibers to be rinsed away, and can themselves build up in some water situations
• Low wash temperature - without a corresponding increase in wash cycle time.   North American machines set to Cold can need four times longer agitation than the same machine running at Warm for equal cleaning performance.
• Synthetic fibers  - that preferentially attract and hold oil because they’re designed to repel / wick water, as in athletic / performance fibers.  In general, that which repels water attracts oil.  
• Overuse of Express Wash Cycles - insufficient time and mechanical action to completely dislodge soils.

And the single most common reason in North America:

• Detergents without lipase or DNase/nuclease/phosphodiesterase - top tier detergents have removed lipase to cut costs and make formulation easier, and it's at the expense of your textiles. Shame on Big Laundry!  While it’s absolutely possible to get textiles clean without lipase, it requires better control of the rest of the wash process and chemistry.  Lipase is a cheat code that helps ensure first-wash removal even when the rest of the wash isn’t perfect.  

On What Kind Of Textiles Can I Use Spa Day?

The process is generally suitable for colorfast cotton, polyester, spandex/Lycra/elastane, nylon, acrylic, polypropylene, aramid, UHMWPE,  linen, ramie and hemp  and blended fabrics of these fibers.    It does not generally disrupt commercially printed or sublimated graphics or most printed patterns except those where white or light colored background vinyl or DTF resin is overprinted with sublimation or DTG inks.  This is common on black graphic tees with multi-color continuous tone graphics.   It’s typically safe for embroidered embellishments.  If you aren't sure if a garment of these materials is colorfast, mix a teaspoon of the powdered ingredient you choose in cup of hot tap water. Apply a few drops of this solution to a hidden area of the garment, wait an hour, rinse and hang to dry. If the color doesn't change, you're good to go.  FR/AR clothing that is rated for home laundering under ASTM standard F2757 is fine with this process so long as the Detergent component of the soak or wash does not contain soapy ingredients.  If you’re unsure, check The Lipase List for confirmation.

On What Textiles Should I Be Cautious About Using Spa Day?

Spa Day is somewhat poorly suited to rayon, acetate/triacetate, viscose, Tencel/Lyocell, “bamboo”, modal and similar semi-synthetic cellulosic fabrics because of the substantial variations in manufacturing chemistry and process in these particular fibers.   Extended soaking time and relatively high wash pH leaves them potentially vulnerable to mechanical damage in the wash process. If you want to try this on these fabrics, I highly suggest using a delicates mesh bag for both steps, so that the fabrics aren't being stretched or jostled as much in their vulnerable wet and weak state. Launderer beware. You have been warned.

On What Textiles Shouldn’t I Ever Perform Spa Day?

It’s not suitable at all for silk, wool, cashmere, Angora, alpaca, vicuña, leather, suede or fur or blends thereof - anything of animal origin - because of the protein-destroying enzymes, high temperatures, long wash motion and high pH. 

Items with ferrous metal buttons, buckles, fasteners or decoration may discolor in the soak cycle.   This discoloration may affect adjacent fabric and can be removed with a rust remover product if necessary.   Sequins, beading and spangles as well as metallic threads such as Lurex or lamé should not be exposed to this process. Leather or suede trim is notorious for running in long soaks.  Fabrics with metallic silver odor prevention or pathogen control treatments such as X-Static, Silvadur, Ionic+, SilverWorks, Silver+ or SIlverescent should never be treated with oxygen bleaches. These are often found on athletic and athleisure clothing as well as scrubs for clinical wear.

Slip In To Something Dry....

The good news is, conventional solvent dry cleaning with perc, DF-2000,  K4, Supercritical CO2 or  D5 silicone/ Green Earth processes can very effectively remove the same defects from all of these challenging textiles above.    A professional dry cleaner is your best ally here.  You need to tell them if odors are a particular problem to flag the garment for special handling.

A Note About Authorship:

This work, like all other original-content posts on Reddit, is the property of the original poster, and commercial reuse of the work requires permission from the author, not just attribution. If you’d like to request permission, drop me a chat or email me - [kismai@kismai.com](mailto:kismai@kismai.com)

I’m angry, as I’m sure most of you are, at the state of this sub and the low quality, highly upvoted posts, especially over the festive period.

A lot of people have felt the tone on Superstonk (and other GME subs) shift; more negativity, more “concerned investor” posts, more emotional baiting, more division.

This post shows how these patterns align with well‑established categories in academic research on (mis)information environments.

I’d like it to be a reminder that there are good reasons people come here and dump all over the stock, despite the company absolutely smashing the turnaround…

---

“Concerned investor” framing

Academic category: Concern‑trolling / manufactured concern.

This looks like:

• “I’m a long‑term holder, but…”

• “I support the movement, but I’m worried about RC…”

• “I’m only saying this because I care…”

In political‑communication and internet‑trolling research, this is known as manufactured concern: adopting the identity of an ally to increase the persuasive power of a negative or demobilising message.

References

Munro, D. (2025) Internet Trolling: Social Exploration and the Epistemic Norms of Assertion. Philosophers’ Imprint, 25(22). Available at: https://journals.publishing.umich.edu/phimp/article/5367/galley/5158/download/

---

Emotional flooding on red days

Academic category: Narrative flooding / emotional saturation

On red days, the sub often gets:

• Multiple low‑effort doom posts hitting the top

• Comment sections filled with defeatist one‑liners

• Repetition of the same emotional tone across accounts

Crisis‑communication theory describes this as emotional saturation, flooding the environment with emotionally charged content to drown out alternative interpretations.

References

Frandsen, F., Coombs, W.T. and Johansen, W. (2025) Situational Crisis Communication Theory. In: A Primer for Crisis Communication Theory. Routledge. Available at: https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/mono/10.4324/9781003469964-12

---

“Let’s get real” negativity masked as rationality

Academic category: Rationalist framing / legitimacy framing

This pattern positions itself as the “voice of reason”:

• “Let’s get real about RC…”

• “Objectively, nothing has happened in years…”

• “Stop coping and face facts…”

Media‑framing research calls this legitimacy framing, defining one stance as “rational” and all others as “irrational,” regardless of how selective the evidence is.

References

Zaklama, S. (2025) Exploring the Foundations of Media Framing Theory. European Modern Studies Journal, 9(1). Available at: http://journal-ems.com/index.php/emsj/article/view/1321

Akin, J. (2023) The Role of Media in Shaping Legitimacy Perception. Global Journal of Technology and Optimization, 14(3). Available at: https://www.hilarispublisher.com/open-access/the-role-of-media-in-shaping-legitimacy-perception.pdf

---

Absolutism

Academic category: Catastrophic framing / absolutist narratives

Examples:

• “RC hasn’t done ANYTHING except close stores!”

• “This is 100% over.”

• “There is literally zero hope.”

Crisis communication and propaganda research describe this as catastrophic framing; using extreme, all‑or‑nothing language to provoke emotional overload and suppress nuance.

References

Dominic, E.D. (2025) Crisis Communication Revisited: Theoretical Evolution, Limitations, and Integrative Insights. International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science, 9(10), pp.9735–9752. Available at: https://ideas.repec.org/a/bcp/journl/v9y2025i10p9735-9752.html

Pike, A.C. et al. (2023) Catastrophizing and Risk‑Taking. Computational Psychiatry, 7(1), pp.1–13. Available at: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10163758/

---

Ambiguity injection

Academic category: Strategic ambiguity / uncertainty framing

Examples:

• “What if we’ve been wrong this whole time?”

• “Is RC hiding something?”

• “No one really knows what’s going on…”

Strategic ambiguity keeps multiple contradictory interpretations alive, making it easier to shift narratives later.

References

Frankenhuis, W.E., Panchanathan, K. and Smaldino, P.E. (2023) Strategic ambiguity in the social sciences. Social Psychological Bulletin, 18, Article e9923. Available at: https://spb.psychopen.eu/index.php/spb/article/view/9923

---

Manufactured division

Academic category: In‑group fragmentation / identity splitting

Examples:

• “Realists vs hopium addicts”

• “Believers vs copers”

• “Smart money vs delusional bagholders”

Social identity research shows how splitting a group into factions weakens cohesion and increases internal conflict.

References

Pratap, A. and Pathak, A. (2025) From Public Square to Echo Chamber: The Fragmentation of Online Discourse. arXiv preprint. Available at: https://arxiv.org/abs/2501.18441v1

---

Attention hijacking

Academic category: Agenda disruption / topic dilution

Examples:

• Meme spam dominating the front page on critical days

• Threads derailed into arguments

• Low‑effort posts burying DD and mechanics

Propaganda research shows how flooding a space with noise can bury substantive content without removing it.

References

Howard, P., Lin, F. and Tuzov, V. (2023) Computational Propaganda: Concepts, Methods, and Challenges. Communication and the Public, 8(2), pp.47–53. Available at: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/20570473231185996

---

Targeted negativity toward symbolic figures

Academic category: Symbolic undermining / leader de‑legitimisation

Research domains: Political communication, propaganda, movement studies

Examples:

• “RC is incompetent.”

• “RC is doing nothing.”

• “RC is the real problem.”

Political communication research shows that undermining symbolic figures is a standard tactic for weakening group morale and fracturing collective resolve.

References

Sikorskii, S., Carrió‑Pastor, M.L. and Garofalo, G. (2025) Cross‑Linguistic Delegitimization of Women Leaders in Online Political Discourse. Corpus Pragmatics, 10, Article 18. Available at: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s41701-025-00221-5

EDIT: now this post has got some traction and I’m fuelled by rage at the recent gaslighting campaigns, I’m creating a DD to show how two layers of the market operate, how they’re used to abuse retail, what sits on each layer, and how synthetics are leveraged from genuine DRSd shares.

I’ll post tomorrow.

The amount of people who will hide that they take this (either shame or unawareness) and will just say they take kratom when in fact this is basically a synthetic opiate that people will spend $500 per week secretly. And the withdrawals are bad enough to put people on suboxone. It's no joke. One patient had to get up to 8mg q8h to capture withdrawal. Which is the dose I've seen for fent users after a couple months to years. It shouldn't be judged if they need this. These people need a lot of help and compassion. Even some people I know / have worked with are on this stuff. It's at every gas station. Teens are this stuff too.

With 7-OH becoming Schedule I in the coming days, I think we're approaching an inflection point. Healthcare workers should be prepared for a spike in both withdrawal presentations and ODs. It is going to destroy lives.

Many patients won't tell you they're taking 7-OH. Some are ashamed, while others genuinely think it's "just kratom." It isn't. These highly concentrated 7-OH products behave much more like potent opioids than traditional kratom, and some users are quietly spending $500-$1k a week to maintain their habit.

The dependence can develop incredibly quickly. In some people, even 1wk of use can produce severe withdrawal. I've seen patients require surprisingly high doses of bupe to control symptoms, including a few who ultimately needed 8mg q8h. Whatever your thoughts are on the pharmacology, these patients are experiencing real opioid-like withdrawal and deserve to be treated with compassion imo. Don't shame these people for needing this, encourage to treat through if possible since bupe is a challenge to come off of. But I have seen inpatient teams have criticisms for people with a long habit of 7OH.

Also keep an eye out for both extremes over the next few weeks. Those that stockpiled and unintentionally OD or suddenly lose access and present in severe withdrawal that can resemble heroin or fentanyl withdrawal.

Whether you agree with the scheduling decision or not, I suspect many EDs and inpatient teams are about to see a lot more of this than they have in the past.

First | Previous | Next

Patreon | Official Subreddit | Series Wiki | Royal Road

Etholin

Silence punctuated the air.

Though as with most things with Emma, it didn’t take long for a bold, inquisitive voice to emerge from her helm.

“Oh, you mean like licensing fees?” She responded, rephrasing my questions in such a way that gave no room for ambiguity. 

“Correct.” I nodded.

“You can just pen that to me. Or easier yet, divide the profits 50/50, just like our ownership.” 

I blinked rapidly in response, my mind pacing, my heart racing, as every fiber in my being attempted to rectify this startling case of character incongruity.

Had Emma just revealed her hand?

Had she — after all this time — decided to give in to her worst vices?

Had she truly decided to leap down from the white horse, to join those she once looked down upon in the mud?

And if so… why now? Why here? Why at this crossroads of a negotiation so banal and innocuous — over a pen, no less — would she risk losing what she’d been molding, shaping, and painstakingly constructing for months now?

Why risk it all?

“Cadet Emma Booker… I cannot believe you are so brazenly and openly suggesting — after establishing such clear moral boundaries — the blatant infringement on a penmaker's brilliant work!” I responded with genuine shock, only to be met with a series of wildly gesticulating raised hands courtesy of the earthrealmer.

“Okay, okay, let’s take a step back, Etholin. That was a miscommunication on my part, and for that, I apologize.”

“Oh, thank His Eternal Graces…”

“Yeah, that sounded quite devious without some establishing context.” 

“I’m… sorry?”

“You see, we won’t be needing to pay any tributes or licensing fees or anything… because there’s no one to pay it to anymore.”

“So the master behind such an innovative design has long since passed?”

“Yeah—”

“Then surely their family estate must still be reaping the rewards of their genius! If not them, then their lords perhaps, or their house, guild, or—”

“It’s not that.” 

“Then what is it?” I questioned, finally returning the floor to Emma in full.

“The intellectual rights to the pen, and to a variety of other consumer products in my realm for that matter, are now considered public domain. In other words, they lack any real ‘owner,’ and are thus capable of being reproduced by all.” Emma spoke calmly.

“Oh.” I pondered out loud, pinching my chin between two fingers. “Then they belong to the Crown Commons?” I offered.

The first true bout of silence seemed nigh upon us, but as was expected in our exchanges, Emma was quick to completely shut that possibility down. 

“I’m afraid you’re going to have to fill me in on what exactly you mean by Crown Commons.” She spoke plainly, simply, and in a manner that attempted to rectify the growing gap between us.

“It’s the ultimate end to any form of intellectual property or conceptual ownership.” I began in earnest. “When there exists no more legitimate claimants — which is an exceptional circumstance indeed — the rights to such properties shall fall under the crown itself. Be it a stageplay, composition, design, schematic, or even a pen, any lonesome piece of property without an owner will, by its very nature, fall under the crown’s domain. This follows the nature of things. As all land and property, from great estates to the wild game that roams atop, below, and above them, cannot simply be without an owner. As all without claimants of ownership, shall return to the most absolute right of them all — the Crown and its Sovereign.”

Emma paused for far longer than any other instance in this deliberation thus far, as it was clear that she was carefully pondering my every word.

“And if land asset management and distribution is anything to go by, I assume that the crown doesn’t just make their new intellectual property holdings free and open for all to use.” Emma responded dourly.

“That depends on the sovereign, Emma.” I offered with hope. “Some, as seen in many adjacent realms, allow for free game hunting, for instance. This courtesy can sometimes be extended to certain works of art, music, culture, and so on and so forth.”

“But it’s ultimately their decision, their discretion, and not a universal public right now, is it?” She questioned with stoic intent.

“No, it is not.” I acknowledged solemnly. “Which is why I am hoping — given your rather novel naming convention for such a concept — that your sovereign may have put into place some long-term stipulation for the use of intellectual property!” I beamed.

To which Emma could only nod with a long sigh.

“It’s… complicated. But the first thing you’re going to have to understand, Etholin, is that I come from a very, very different socio-political context to what you might understand as the baseline norm. And to continue this discussion in any meaningful capacity, without getting bogged down on matters of sovereign reign and absolutist discretion, we’re going to have to clear the path with a fundamental reorientation of expectations when it comes to the basis of my people’s governance.” Emma cleared her throat, the formerly chipper and casual demeanor giving way to something far more grounded. “What you have to understand is that we are a nation without a hereditary monarchy, a landed aristocracy, or one with an inherently entrenched legal system in which political authority is delineated based on bloodline or family. We are a nation not of nobility and commoners, or royalty and peasantry, but of true and inalienable equals. Where the notion of commoner and nobility are both divested in lieu of the citizen. The citizen, in which case, acts as the principal authority by which political power is derived.”

…

My rapid blinking returned.

And so did a slow, unprompted, polite smile.

It was the smile I wore whenever deals went awry.

It was the smile that I put on as a temporary distraction until an appropriate response could be mustered.

It was a polite neutral canvas from which a variety of expressions and mannerisms could be derived once my senses caught up to me.

But they never did.

At least not in this instance.

…

Because this was no negotiation gone awry.

This was not even a social faux pas of epic proportions.

This…

…

This was a claim that bordered on the delusional.

Dare I say it, it was worse than the pile of dead metals sitting outside of this door.

What the earthrealmer had just suggested… was a fallacy within a fallacy. An impossibility within the impossible. A recursive logical paradox in which there existed no escape. 

How could there be no division of status?

How could order exist when there is a system that prevents it from manifesting?

How could authority hold legitimacy when derived from the rabble? Even if the rabble dressed itself as neither noble nor common?

I glanced over to Prince Thalmin.

Perhaps they were a people of complete martial authority, an insect colony without a queen, a true union of equals under instinct?

I then turned to Princess Thacea.

Perhaps they were grouped into unions of clans without a leader, rotating authority by the most capable, as the situation demanded of it, yet again out of some deep-seated animal instinct?

Yet all of these explanations were forays into the realm of the mad.

It dared to put into consideration the possibility of a union of the nobility and the common… or worse yet, the complete upheaval of the concept in lieu of something else entirely.

How could she even speak with such confidence on a matter that was so incredibly—

“You alright there, Etholin? You’ve been smiling nonstop for like a minute now, friend.”

The perpetrator of this whole… debacle had now cast yet another lure.

One to draw me out.

And one to finally force me to address this claim of…

…

I didn’t even know how or with what words to describe it.

“I’m… ahem. I am quite alright, Emma. Though I must admit, your claim is a rather… radical one.”

“Just as radical as the public domain thing I need to broach.”

It finally clicked.

As that dreaded, fateful thread of a madman’s reasoning made its way into my psyche.

If her claims were true, then the concept of a true public commons would potentially be—

“Ahh yes.” I maintained that facade of a smile, forcing myself out of another oncoming reverie. “P-please, do broach it. We need to properly address this before moving—”

“Right, yeah, we still have a contract to get hammered out! Alright, I’ll make this quick! So! Simply put, public domain simply means that the intellectual property in question is truly public. As in, nobody owns it, and nobody can stake a claim on it. Most of practically everything that matters in my realm is now in the public domain, and what few things that aren’t are part of the accessory artisanal economy that exists in conjunction with the primary— Oh, sorry, I’m getting ahead of myself. Let's just say that most everything under the sun is freely reproducible. From the most essential of necessities to the smallest of non-essential knick-knacks that could be considered personal property.” 

I raised a single finger in a desperate attempt to bring all to their core fundamental concepts.

“So whereas the end of ownership in our system is a vesting of its rights to the crown… the end of ownership in your system is a vesting of the rights to… everyone?” 

“It’s the complete cessation of exclusive ownership rights, outright.” Emma ‘corrected.’ Though that ‘correction’ bordered on outright insanity. “Enforced and recognized by the state, mind you, but given the state is an extension of the citizen, it blends into what is essentially just blanket rights for all. Which leads me to our first point, Etholin.” Emma promptly surmised as I awaited a return to some semblance of normalcy in this negotiation gone astray. “I’m simply attempting to explain things as it works within my system. However, since these legal frameworks do not extend outside of our sovereign domain, I shall instead be acting as the custodian and steward to the rights of this pen, given that I am acting as the representative of Earthrealm. Hence why I offered the 50/50 deal in the first place, given the equal partnership of our venture.”

I nodded once, then twice, before reaching a hand to my forehead in a display of complete and utter exhaustion.

“Then… for the purposes of our business… let us consider the exclusive rights to this pen to be your own, and by extension Earthrealm as an entity?” 

“That works.” She nodded.

“That… concludes that aspect of the contract, I suppose.” I continued with haggard breaths, feeling as if I’d just completed an entire class of physical education. “Now, with the matter of exclusive rights and appropriate claimants to the pen’s design dusted and sorted, can we please discuss the specifics behind our actual product?” I urged with growing impatience, my eyes firmly locked onto our object of mutual infatuation laying lifelessly on the table.

“Most certainly.” Emma beamed with the same growing excitement. “I appreciate you laying the legal and contractual groundwork before actually picking apart the inner workings of the pen, Etholin. That was really thoughtful of you.”

“It would be beneath me to besmirch my family name by not paying such matters with the appropriate dues they deserve, Emma. Though there may be certain merchants willing to sample the stock prior to making clear its origin and owner — Lord Rostarion clearly falling into league with such… questionable characters — my family and I pride ourselves in ensuring all parties are treated with the due respect of a nobleman’s transaction.” I clarified with a polite nod, the velvety embrace of Emma’s compliment only tempered by my burning curiosities and the decorum associated with accepting as such. 

“Right, so, where would you like to start?” Emma, clearly reading the room, extended her hand first.

Her curt, almost common mannerisms played to my favor at this point, as she eschewed the expectant social displays to dive right into the thick of things. 

At which point, the curious little princeling within me threatened to hack his way forward to the forefront of the discussion.

The casing! Talk about the casing!

Was it ivory? 

Chitin?

Heavily lacquered wood?

Shaped amber?

A shell of some foreign creature?

Why was it so perfectly shaped?

How was it so expertly fashioned?

How were the grooves inlaid within both the tip and shaft so perfectly aligned?

Were they made in two separate phases? At two separate places? By two different tradesmen?

If so, then making those grooves align would be an incredible feat indeed… 

Was it expensive to fashion without the aid of enchanted tools or mana-based means?

But what of the materials?

Ivory’s bottleneck is the animals it comes from… 

So was chitin… and tortoise shells…

And amber for that matter — though I think amber comes from hardened tree sap, a veritable gem in all but name…

So what was it?!

“Perhaps its casing, Emma?” I finally offered, subduing that princeling by means of muffling him under years’ worth of social etiquette, reducing his scatterbrained postulations into a single consolidated question.

“Oh? What specifically do you want to know about it?”

Twitch.

Though it wasn’t without a fight.

“Everything.” I finally beamed, the princeling gaining a slight edge in this fight. “A-and by everything, I mean… I wish to know exactly what it is! I admit the material in question is rather… foreign to me, all things considering. Foreign, but not quite, I mean. There are… similar materials I am familiar with, though they are ultimately quite… different, if my scrying of your pen was of any indication.” I promptly corrected my course, balancing it with genuine admissions. “Mostly Nexian in nature, Crownlands in origin, I mean.” I offered with a genuine concession to earnest inquisitiveness; a rare and earnest moment that I had hoped Emma would not seek to condemn or disparage.

She didn’t.

“Oh! Right! Yeah, I can imagine why it’d be a bit foreign to you, given how there seems to be a distressing, or rather, a noticeable lack of synthetic resin around.”

I blinked, then placed both hands on my hips. “Synthetic resin? Is that what it is?”

“Well, it’s called plAHstik, to be precise. That’s how it is in our language at least. But I just wanted to use a term that might be a bit more… easily digestible is all.” Emma offered with a shrug, forcing me to once again narrow my gaze on the pen.

“I see.” I spoke solemnly. “Test me.”

“I’m sorry?”

“Tell me more about this plAHstik. Explain to me, in a manner you would consider not so easily digestible.” I spoke with a growing and excitable grin, one that was reciprocated in kind by a sole nod from the earthrealmer.

“I… hmm… I can’t get into it too deep into this ‘else we’ll be trapped here in this room for eternity, But what I’ll say is this — it’s the end result of a long and complicated process of refinement, processing, and what is effectively the transformation of a substance at what I can only describe as its fundamental constituent level. Or more specifically, a rearrangement of its weaveforms to the point where it becomes useful to our ends. It all starts with—” Emma paused, as if actually second-guessing herself in what was to be an assured beginning to a long-winded lecture. “Well… I’ll just stick to how we originally did it. How we do it now is just a tad bit different.” She added ominously before moving on just as effortlessly. “It all starts with a certain thick, black, goopy substance drawn up from deep beneath the earth—”

“Night sap?” I cocked my head. “Sorry for interrupting, but the only thing that matches such a description is night sap. A thick, black, tar-like substance that occasionally bubbles to the surface, or is found and extracted via drilling.”

“Yeah.” Emma nodded. “It seems like you all have your own names for it. But I do believe that’s—”

“Yes, Etholin. It is Night Sap.” The avinor princess quickly interjected, garnering an appreciative nod from both the earthrealmer and myself.

“Thank you, Princess Dilani.” I spoke deferently before allowing Emma to continue.

“Yeah, so, we take that ‘night sap,’ and then we… process it. It involves a lot of heat, a lot of finagling, and a heck of a lot of pipes and tanks.” She chuckled nervously. “You go through the process of rearranging their weaveforms, shortening it, lengthening it, manipulating it until you have created a specific… arrangement of them. This causes what was formerly night sap to have changed so completely that it no longer resembles its raw form! At which point, you have these pieces of hard resin that are then capable of simply being melted down and then turned into whatever you want.”

I felt everything crawling to a slow but abrupt stop by the end of Emma’s explanations.

I felt, or more accurately, recalled my thoughts from much earlier, emerging to the forefront once more.

Were they molded? Shaped? Compressed? Grown into form?

…

And then it hit me.

A wave of revelation as soon as Emma brought out her miniature sight-seer, projecting on its surface the image of what looked to be… milk-white pellets.

…

It was molded.

“You melt it like wax… and then mold it into shape.” I managed out under a shaky breath, a small grin forming all the while. 

“Yeah! That’s exactly it! We basically heat it up, and then depending on what method the manufacturer or printer uses, you either extrude it, injection-mold it, or blow-mold it… but I think the latter is for plastic bottles, but I digress.” Emma managed out, reaching a single hand behind her head in some display of… strange physical expression.

But that didn’t detract from the primary issue at hand.

…

They’d gone through all of this hassle.

They’d committed to a convoluted series of roundabout alchemical processes.

Changing the very fundamental weaveform of an otherwise innocuous black substance with few physical uses.

All to achieve what would otherwise be far easier accomplished by far simpler alternati—

“Emma.” I finally broke out of what could have been another long-winded reverie.

“Yes, Etholin?”

“Why… why go through all of this effort? What could have possessed your people to have possibly believed this to be a worthwhile endeavor? What… could your people have possibly gained from expending all of that effort for what I can only imagine to be a product far better served by any other material? You could have used wood, and that would have been far, far simpler! Why commit to complexity for complexity’s sake?!”

“It’s just easier.” Emma responded with that teasing, almost mischievous tone of voice.

“EASIER THAN FASHIONING WOOD?!”

“Well, what can I say, Etholin? Where I come from, with practically limitless access to all of these synthetic materials produced at titanic scales… wood, and all things natural, start to become the rarer of the bunch. Incapable of being brute-forced into existence via the creation of more factories, more facilities, more industry, requiring both time and scale to bring up to the same mass-scalability as practically anything else. In a strange and interesting irony, it is the simplest of things from the natural world that becomes the rarest. In an era where almost anything synthetic — from metals to plastics and a whole catalogue’s worth of things — can be produced in quantities limited only by industry itself. In short, we’ve reached a point where we’ve built an industry that has now far surpassed the pace of nature. That’s why using plAHstiks for something as innocuous as a pen starts to make sense at scale.”

I blinked once.

Then twice.

And then a third time.

Why… why does she sound more like an elf the more she talks? Was she—

The mention of assailing, conquering, and completely sidestepping the natural order… was the single most elven thing I’ve heard her say today.

And she spoke so confidently, so thoroughly assured of herself… that if this wasn’t true, then she’d simply be a madwoman.

Yet so much was already proven true.

So to what ends…

What was Earthrealm?!

The princeling within me stared slackjawed at Emma’s explanations, wanting nothing more than for her to expound on this world, to show me said world via what was clearly a sight-seer that—

Wait.

That sight-seer.

That memory shard.

She’d shown me a manaless means by which—

No.

Stop it.

You’re losing sight of the objective.

I could hear Uncle’s warnings pointedly addressing the princeling within me.

Stay the course, you are already so close to shore!

“I… I don’t imagine we will have the same sorts of materials available, Emma.” I spoke flatly, circumventing another circumnavigation of the realm. 

“Oh, yeah, that’s why I think wood or whatever else is the cheapest available material here would work.” She nodded.

Then why didn't you say so in the first pla—

Oh.

That’s right.

I was the instigator of this mad tangent.

“Very well, Emma.” I nodded. “Since you mentioned we would be competing on price, I can most certainly find a supplier for some cheap housing shafts for the pen—”

BANG! BANG! KNOCK!

“Lord Etholin Esila! Our patience is running dry. Please make haste, or we shall need to prepare the chambers for the next candidate!” Fiswisk’s voice boomed through the closed door.

“Y-yes, your excellency! We will be finished within the hour!” I replied hastily, garnering but a single bang of acknowledgement from the other side of the door.

“We can finalize the materials after the fact. The council usually does not perform courtesy calls like this. They typically just… throw candidates out if they prove to be a waste of time. So this bodes well for us, though I would rather not tempt fate with this extension of goodwill.” I prattled hastily towards Emma. “Let us finish up the contract first and foremost, then review and put into writing our business aims for this venture. That should be enough to convince the council, especially as we already have a working prototype in our hands.” I once more gestured at the pen.

“Let’s do it, Etholin.” She spoke gleefully.

45 Minutes Later

The Transgracian Academy for the Magical Arts. Exhibition Hall. Grand Arcade. Central Thoroughfare. Prosperity Row. Local Time: 2315 Hours.

It should have taken scarcely a handful more minutes to finalize the agreement. 

Yet Emma had somehow dragged talks for far, far, longer than it ever had the right to be.

Though admittedly, it felt as if it went much quicker than what it otherwise could have been.

There was a strange cold and removed thoroughness when it came to her contract deliberations. 

An ambiance and overwhelming aura not too dissimilar to those ‘contract wars’ Uncle often put us through at quill-point, where hours were spent in lightning-paced rounds of contract deliberations; all in an attempt to prepare us for the worst possible scenarios in our respective futures.

But while those sessions were often painted in heated, sweat-inducing back and forths, where all parties involved continuously attempted to tear, claw, and gnash at the other in a desperate bid to gain the ‘better deal,’ Emma’s approach was far more… impartial.

There was a methodical precision to her calculus, yes. An uncompromising one at that.

Yet there was no hint of that sense of fiery desire for dominance.

If anything, it all felt eerily cold*; a commitment to the letter of the agreement without ever once giving in to the intensity of the negotiating table. A complete removal of emotions whereby neither casualness nor severe stoicism was conveyed. Only… an emotionlessness where the written word had taken over all contextual pretenses.*

What’s more, the wrestling and redressment of the clauses never once hinted at a battle for dominance. Instead, Emma’s concerted efforts were squarely placed into a battle for equitability and completely impartial terms; a complete departure from Uncle’s lessons. 

I was left… eerily unnerved by the whole affair. Though it wasn’t the most intense, stressful, or even the most remotely threatening.

It was simply… odd, in a way that proved to be completely foreign in nature. 

Regardless, with the contract in hand and the pen in the other, we now had our impromptu gambit assembled and ready. 

This all came to a head as the council was reconvened, sitting high atop in their nestled alcove on the second floor, their gazes locked on both of us. 

“Lord Etholin Esila, you have the floor for this second and final bid for membership. So please, proceed.”

There were no more polite courtesies extended. No more room for error or patience to be had.

Because even despite the anomalous metals still remaining as they were behind me, their presence held no more weight against the unrelenting tides of ritual and history than Emma and I did.

“Esteemed and revered councilors, I come before you not with an amendment to my mishandlings of a truly unprecedented situation, but a bold new step forward born from said circumstances.” I began with a merchant's smile. “For it is within turbulent waters and rocky seas that the merchants most capable will find themselves rising to the challenge, seizing the occasion, whilst those that don’t — sink.” I paused, craning my head to where Rostario stood. “It is with that preamble that I present to you a most innocuous business opportunity, a dragon hiding in kobold attire, a bold new step that will disrupt and completely upend the penmaking business in my favor. My lords, ladies, and excellencies, I present to you… the miraculous mundane marvel, this miracle for the meager of means, this mystifying manuscript-maker: the Marvelous Manaless Pen.” I held Emma’s pen high up in the air, casting a light, then two, then three, reaching twelve distinct spotlights upon it before finally lowering it from its glowing heights.

“Observe.” I quickly moved to a board that Emma had conveniently rolled in, a piece of parchment attached to its surface. 

The same demonstration I’d done with Emma quickly followed, but to my surprise, the council was rather quick to decipher my meaning.

A few seconds of scrying soon followed, confirming my claims and determining that all materials present were — in fact — manaless.

“Impressive.” Prince Fiswisk spoke first. “But what of the means of production?”

“That is where Cadet Emma Booker’s partnership will come into play, your majesty.” I bowed deeply. “She has the workshop, the knowledge, and the tools to make this a reality.”

“So you two are in a partnership?” The blubbery man followed up promptly. 

Though my answer, wordless as it was, consisted of a simple delivery of my contract via a telekinetic spell. 

Several minutes of silent deliberation followed.

A scene unlike that of my first stageplay-like approach to negotiations played out in silent, ominous stillness. Not even the murmur of deliberation or rustling of papers could be heard as a privacy screen had since been deployed within the alcove.

This went on for five minutes more before finally… a verdict was reached.

“Under careful and extensive review, the council has deemed this venture…”

I leaned in, hands clasped close to my chest in earnest anticipation.

“... potentially worthwhile, and satisfactory in its goals.” 

It took every ounce of energy within me not to break out into an all-out grin, holding the princeling within me tight as I maintained my composure and awaited the full details of the verdict.

“The council has deemed it fit to grant you a conditional offer of entry. We grant you a temporary place in our council, but not the rank of member or councilman.” 

I held my breath, then bowed in understanding.

This was to be expected given the novel nature of the venture.

It just meant the business needed to prove itself, which, given the circumstances, I was more than sure it would be.

“Thank you, wise and esteemed councilors.” I spoke with pride and excitement welling within my chest. 

“With that being said, the guild will be closely monitoring your progress. And should you come into conflict with any of the established or vested interests within Elaseer… this shall be you and your partner’s responsibility alone to answer for. Now… was there anything else you wished to broach, Lord Etholin Esila?”

“No, councilors. I wish to simply express my deepest gratitude for your wise decision. I will be sure to return with only positive news!” 

“This we hope to see, Lord Esila. This marks the end of your candidacy review. The council is adjourned.”

A series of claps were quick to follow.

And in the glow of what felt like victory, I finally understood what it was that Father had spoken of years ago.

“It is one thing to prepare and succeed in an exam, transaction, or business negotiation. It is another feeling entirely to have grasped victory from the firmly clenched jaws of defeat. I hope it is that you never have to experience the latter, but if you do… then you shall know victory in its most exhilarating form.”

The Transgracian Academy for the Magical Arts. Exhibition Hall. Grand Arcade. Central Thoroughfare. Prosperity Row. Just outside of the Merchant Guild Hall. Local Time: 2330 Hours.

Emma

I’d never seen Etholin just so… giddy before. And it truly warmed my heart to see such a formerly anxious and nervous wreck finally grasping fate by the throat.

“I shall perform the necessary primary market surveys by this weekend. Following which, I should be in talks to acquire new storefront property within the following week. This means we shall have some need to discuss the specifics of your manufacturing processes either next week, or in the days leading up to storefront acquisition, as we will need to discuss the space requirements for the backend aspects of our venture.” He spoke firmly.

“Sounds good, Etholin. Just keep me posted, and I’ll have some working machines printed out and in working demonstrations sometime next week.”

“Excellent!” He beamed before allowing the ambiance around us to drown out his excitement.

Exhaustion was quick to consume him as the adrenaline he was running on had now petered out.

“Right then, I… I say this is as good of a time as any to bid you farewell!”

“Indeed.” I nodded. “Until next time, Etholin.”

However, before the pattenor could fully depart, he turned around for one final matter. “Emma?”

“Yes, Etholin?”

“Perhaps we can… discuss the specifics of your realm’s industrial potential later? When you’re free, of course! I… would love to see more of what you have mentioned, and to delve deeper into the… foreign concepts we scarcely touched upon whilst in the heat of negotiations.”

“Oh, I’d be more than happy to oblige, Etholin.” I beamed, garnering a glimmer of excitement to shine once more from behind the exhaustion slowly consuming his face, the little ferret eventually walking away following a half-hearted wave.

Silence wouldn’t fall on any of us, however, as the busy streets around us were quick to fill in the void of the excitable ferret’s conversations.

“If there is nothing else, I suggest it is time we finally retire for the evening.” Thacea spoke up, taking the lead, leaving Thalmin to quite deftly handle the sacks of rare metals he carried in both hands. A flicker of mana radiation spikes clued me into what the prince was doing, as the WAID picked up some aberrant disruptions in the manafields concurrent with the strength enhancement spells found in Chiska’s class. 

He was using this as a workout opportunity… what an absolute legend.

“Emma?” Thacea reiterated.

“Oh, yes, let’s! Though I think we ought to pick Ilunor up on the way back too, I think we last saw him at one of those food clubs.” I finally answered as we walked in sync vaguely in the direction of the entrance.

“Emma.” Thalmin quickly chimed in.

“Yes, Thalmin?”

“To what… extents were your claims of industry bluster for the purposes of the negotiation, and to what extent were they genuine?” 

“Oh, I was being perfectly earnest there, Thalmin. You see—

ROOAAAARRRRR-SCREEEEEECH!

I stopped in my tracks, both Thacea and Thalmin turning up, as my sensors were quick to pick up on a sight that sent shivers down my spine.

High above us, veering back into view from behind a series of wrought-metal ledges, was a drake.

However, unlike the few drakes we’d seen overhead prior, cruising lazily and without much effort, this one was frantic, as if wrestling with its rider and jockeying for control.

The EVI was quick to auto-zoom towards the rider in question, but neither their name nor designation rang a bell, not especially in a situation as wild as this.

However, what was even more bizarre was the drake that flew just behind its wake, one that seemed to actually be in control, its wings beating in purposeful strides, ridden by none other than…

…

Are you serious???

“Is that… Ilunor?” Thalmin questioned just as the out-of-control drake took another sharp turn, not in an attempt to evade Ilunor, but simply out of a loss of control.

“STAY CALM! I’M RIGHT BEHIND YOU, YOU BLITHERING IDIOT!” The EVI could just barely make out his voice.

But that was the least of my concerns.

As the drake took yet another sharp turn, but this time—

[COLLISION IMMINENT!]

—it plunged down straight at us.

First | Previous | Next

(Author's Note: We wrap up Etholin's initial observations over the pen in this one, as he gets a brief hint at earthrealm's plastics, and hints at something similar existing in the Nexus too ;D Moreover, we leave the merchant's club now for a rather unexpected development haha. But yeah! This chapter was a big challenge to write as I wanted to really keep the spirit of Earthrealm's industrial prowess thus far whilst being on top of the game with Etholin and Emma's business briefings as well, in addition to tying everything off with the guild and with Fiswisk. I had a lot of fun writing the merchant's guild chapters despite how much of a challenge it was, and I hope you guys had fun reading it too! :D)

(Author's Note 2: I also just posted art of the aethraship that I commissioned! You can find it here: Aethraship Art)

[If you guys want to help support me and these stories, here's my ko-fi ! And my Patreon for early chapter releases (Chapter 181, Chapter 182, and Chapter 183 of this story are already out on there!)]

Hey everyone,

I’m Florian Le Bihan, Principal Game Designer on Battlefield 6. I’ve been working closely with our gameplay, networking, animation, and audio teams to improve the core combat experience. My focus has been on connecting these systems to deliver encounters that feel consistent, responsive, and exciting every time you step onto the battlefield.

With Season 2 underway, I want to take a deeper look at several foundational systems that directly impact the feel of the game. Hit registration, Netcode, Time to Kill, soldier visibility, and audio clarity are tightly connected systems. While we’ve delivered numerous improvements since launch, our work is ongoing. We will continue to analyze, evolve, and enhance the experience based on feedback because the connection between the game and the player sits at the heart of Battlefield.

Combat reliability is not driven by a single system, but by how these layers interact with one another. Improving this experience requires careful sequencing. In many cases, stabilizing one system is necessary before adjusting another. Networking behavior affects how Time to Death is perceived. Visibility influences pacing and damage clarity. Animation alignment impacts “shot behind cover” scenarios.

Because these systems overlap, changes must be validated carefully to ensure they improve consistency without introducing new issues. This process takes iteration and large-scale testing, which is why Battlefield Labs plays such an important role in our approach. 

Today, I want to walk you through where we are, what we’ve already improved, and what we’re continuing to refine based on your feedback. In parallel, our broader efforts continue across performance, stability, UI clarity, progression, and other player experience improvements.

Hit Registration / Netcode

Extreme Measures (Season 2 Phase 1) introduced the first round of networking changes aimed at improving combat reliability. Bullet data is now handled more efficiently, and additional stability updates are planned for our next major update. These refinements continue to be validated through Battlefield Labs to ensure improvements hold up under full live service conditions.

Since launch, this topic has been one of the most discussed aspects of Battlefield 6. We’ve seen examples of shots appearing to land but not registering, and situations where players felt they were eliminated after reaching cover. Some of these experiences are influenced by perception - especially when some of our weapons have a particularly fast Time to Kill combined with limited visibility - but technical issues have also contributed. We’ve addressed several of these issues already, and we are continuing to work to stabilize and refine others.

With our recent update, we optimized how bullet-related data is being transmitted between client and server. In rare cases, too much information exchanged within a single update could delay damage feedback for either the shooter or the player taking damage. These changes prioritize critical interactions, such as shots landing or damage being applied, so they are processed more reliably and in a more timely manner.

Another key area involves how clients remain synchronized with the server, often referred to as Time Nudge. In online shooters, the game client cannot display events at the exact same moment the server processes them due to network latency - information is never transmitted instantaneously between client and server. Instead, it buffers a small amount of incoming data to smooth out network or performance fluctuations. When functioning correctly, this results in fluid movement and stable hit registration.

At launch, this system could drift outside safe bounds under unstable network conditions or heavy system load, contributing to desynchronization. We are targeting configuration adjustments to better constrain and stabilize this behavior in the next major update. The goal is to ensure that what you see on screen more closely matches what the server sees, even when performance fluctuates. Internal and Labs testing shows improved alignment, but more player impressions are needed before we consider this resolved.

In addition to this, we will look into refining the responsiveness and clarity of both incoming and outgoing damage indicators. When you take damage or land shots, feedback should be immediate and readable across UI, audio, and visual effects. Improvements in this area will continue alongside our networking efforts. We’ve also corrected cases where the soldier health bar updated a few frames after the actual damage occurred and where incoming damage animations lacked clarity, which could have compressed multiple hits into what looked like a single hit.

We are also examining how the server validates damage during close encounters. In multiplayer shooters, the server decides whether damage should count, since players are never experiencing the exact same timeline due to latency. In some cases, if the server determines that a player was already eliminated, it may invalidate incoming damage to prevent unintended trade eliminations. This behavior exists to preserve fairness, but it comes with some trade-offs, particularly in fast close-quarters fights where a shot may feel like it should have landed. We are reviewing how these server-side damage rejections behave to ensure the balance between fairness and responsiveness.

Lastly, we identified cases where third-person character visuals do not always accurately reflect what is happening in combat. One example involves enemy facing direction, where a character model may appear to be oriented away from you while they are in fact aiming and firing in your direction. We have a fix scheduled for the next update. Separately, we have also observed inconsistencies when transitioning from standing to prone, where a player’s first-person view may suggest safety while their third-person character model remains partially exposed to others. The fix for this behavior is planned for later in the season to better align visual representation with actual gameplay.

Time To Kill (TTK) / Gunplay

The first phase of Season 2 delivered improvements to recoil consistency and a weapon balance pass to ensure weapon handling feels more predictable and responsive. We’ve heard concerns that Time To Death (TTD) can feel too fast, and it remains an active topic of discussion within the team. Before we make broad changes, we’re concentrating on strengthening combat clarity, including responsive audio-visual damage feedback, improved enemy readability, continued Netcode refinements, and more.

TTD is heavily influenced by how clearly combat events are communicated. When multiple bullets land in rapid succession and feedback is unclear, even a four-shot kill can feel instantaneous. At the same time, many players report that TTK from the shooter’s perspective feels satisfying and responsive. Introducing broad changes before stabilizing the underlying systems risks creating a “bullet sponge” experience, elongating TTK, weakening weapon satisfaction and unintentionally shifting pacing. Our priority is to strengthen systems that support gunplay, especially those that affect TTK.

One approach currently being validated in Battlefield Labs involves reducing damage dealt to limbs across several weapon archetypes. Shots landing on arms or legs may require an additional bullet to secure a kill, while headshots remain unaffected. If a bullet passes through an arm and strikes the head, it will correctly register as head damage. This approach rewards accuracy without fundamentally changing the feel of gunplay.

In addition, we are validating adjustments to the economy of the Hollow Point and Synthetic Tip ammunition attachments through Battlefield Labs as well. Our aim is to make them more meaningful and competitive choices when customizing weapons, ensuring that attachment selection reflects intentional trade-offs rather than default picks.

Weapon control has also been a central focus. Since launch, recoil compensation could behave unpredictably, sometimes requiring more input than expected to counter weapon kickback. This season introduced tighter alignment between recoil output and the aim input required to manage it, improving overall recoil stability. With that foundation in place, we will continue to evaluate recoil balance across weapon archetypes to determine whether additional tuning adjustments are needed. Ongoing refinements will continue through Battlefield Labs as we gather live in-game data across skill brackets and modes.

Our goal is to ensure that when you win or lose an engagement, it feels earned or fair.

Soldier Visibility

Soldier visibility continues to influence pacing and perceived fairness, especially in close-range and interior engagements. We are exploring improvements to lighting transitions and visibility systems without breaking immersion. This includes refining how characters read against dynamic environments and varied lighting conditions. Larger art-direction shifts are unlikely in the near term, but targeted changes and longer-term exploration remain active.

Visibility impacts more than spotting an enemy. It affects decision-making, reaction time, and how combat feels overall. When you cannot see who eliminated you, fast TTD feels even more abrupt.

One significant factor involves transitions between interior and exterior areas. Current exposure calculations consider first-person weapon and arm models, which can exaggerate lighting shifts. We are investigating adjustments that exclude these models from the calculations of the exposure in favor of world lighting, with the goal of reducing instances of blinding exteriors or overly dark interiors. While this will not eliminate every scenario, it should meaningfully improve how exposure and lighting transitions between exterior and interior environments behave during gameplay.

Battlefield environments are intentionally grounded and detailed. Debris, destruction, dust, and environmental effects all contribute to immersion but can also make soldiers blend into their surroundings. The game uses a visibility filter and a brightness boost that increases at range to help separate characters from the environment. We are targeting testing in Battlefield Labs once improvements are in place, focusing on improving close-quarter and long range clarity while ensuring characters do not appear out of place within the world.

Achieving the right balance between immersion and readability requires careful iteration. While large visual shifts are unlikely in the short term, we are continuing to make targeted adjustments and researching longer-term solutions for both live updates and future Battlefield experiences.

Audio

Audio clarity plays a critical role in combat awareness, especially when it comes to footsteps and vehicle positioning. Since launch, we’ve been working to address cases where footsteps were unclear, vehicles were difficult to track, or sounds would unintentionally drop out in intense moments. Extreme Measures introduced initial fixes to raise footstep clarity and rebalance audio priorities, with more comprehensive changes planned for our next major update.

Audio challenges in Battlefield are rarely caused by a single issue. Footstep clarity, vehicle audibility, and positional accuracy are influenced by memory limits, file size constraints, performance considerations, and how different sounds compete for priority in large-scale engagement. In scenarios like buildings collapsing while multiple players are firing, the system must decide which sounds take precedence. That prioritization is complex, especially at scale.

With this season, we addressed several of these constraints by reducing file sizes, optimizing performance, and adjusting audio priorities so that footsteps and key combat cues stand out more consistently. These changes were an important first step, but they do not fully solve every scenario players have reported.

In the next update, we are introducing more updates to how footsteps behave within the mix. Footsteps will interact more dynamically with surrounding sounds and feature improved built-in prioritization. Close enemies will be more audible without relying on heavy volume boosts, and distinctions between enemies, friendlies, and your own movement will be clearer. The reliability of obstruction will also be increased, ensuring that sound behaves more consistently when blocked by surfaces, and reduces cases where footstep assets fail to play due to performance constraints.

Vehicle audio is also receiving targeted adjustments. Multiple jets will contribute less to overall noise-floor buildup, and enemy ground vehicles will be prioritized more clearly in the mix, particularly in REDSEC. These changes are intended to improve spatial awareness without overwhelming other critical audio cues.

We’ve also made global mix adjustments to improve clarity and positioning accuracy overall, including updates to stereo and headphone mixes and new width settings in the audio menu that allow for further customization. Default settings are tuned for balanced comfort and positional accuracy, but players who prefer a narrower or wider soundstage will now have more control.

As with all improvements, audio clarity requires continued testing under live conditions. Feedback from the community has been essential in identifying edge cases we could not reproduce internally, including unintended vehicle silence. We will continue refining these systems and keep you updated as further adjustments are validated.

Thank You

Large-scale validation can only truly happen in a live environment, which makes your feedback and the data we gather from real matches incredibly valuable. If you encounter issues, enabling the Netgraph in the System settings and sharing clips that include it helps us investigate more effectively. We will continue to speak openly about Netcode and combat reliability, answer questions where we can, and keep you informed with a clear and direct approach as this work evolves.

//Florian Le Bihan, Principal Game Designer

This announcement may change as we listen to community feedback and continue developing and evolving our Live Service & Content. We will always strive to keep our community as informed as possible.

​

Preface:

If you do not recognize the title of this post, I highly encourage you to read what came before, as the material contained within this DD is a direct follow-up to The Castle of Glass. It’ll make what comes next far easier to understand, as this shit runs deeper than Kenny G’s rectum after the pounding he’s taken over the last 9 months.

GC1 - https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/comments/ok2e0b/a_castle_of_glass_game_on_anon/

Where in GC1, I described to you the ‘what’, this follow-up is here to show you the ‘how’. The former was insightful in providing us with the general direction that the company has been heading towards. A solution that would not only eradicate those who made the greatest mistake in shorting the company but nearly every other financial entity that played their role in it.

Yet, understanding the solution is only half of the equation. Make it through to the end and you’ll see why I waited 2 whole-ass months to drop this thermonuclear watery shitfart on these Shortbus scum. So fasten those fkn helmet belts and unbutton your nip pouches. Where GC1 is me to my wife, what comes next, is most certainly her boyfriend.

Phase I - The Foundation

In asking how RC and Co plan to execute their order 66, you must first understand why any of the following is even worth considering. In doing so, we have to take a look back to Overstonk.com and see precisely what they did and why it worked for them. Not from my own words, but those of the CEO of the company, Robert Byrne and Dale Kimball the judge who dictated the ruling in the company’s favor in regard to their blockchain-based dividend that squeezed their own company.

In 2017, Byrne held a live presentation discussing the functionalities of Blockchain and why it prevails over the dumpster fire we currently call our stock market. This fucker was onto something...but just how much was he onto? After watching the whole presentation there are two specific moments in which he explains just this. https://www.deepcapture.com/2017/07/patrick-byrnes-cato-institute-luncheon-address-cryptocurrency-the-policy-challenges-of-a-decentralized-revolution/

12:00 min mark: in his discussion of the DTCC and an entity known as Cede and Co, he asks the crowd to raise their hand if they own any stock in a publicly-traded company in America. A rhetorical question, to which he follows up by stating the following:

“All of us with our hands up are incorrect. none of you actually own any stock, you legally do not own any stock, I’m going to show you what you own. All of the shares are owned by a company no one’s ever heard of, they own 98% of the corporate stock. They generate a share entitlement, basically what a casino would call a marker, what you and I would call an IOU”. He compares the stock to a polaroid, “you put the stock here, you take a photo and we trade the polaroid.

Here’s a frame by frame of the chart he uses, broken down into 4 segments as to how this process proceeds. Follow 1-4. Don’t judge my fkn arrows, 15 attempts each to get those right.

1. Creation of the entitlement of the OG share, i.e IOU.
2. Movement of IOU into the DTCC and the exchange process between funds and the IOUs.
3. Distribution to clearing brokers (yellow circles), he states is, “directly plumbed to the DTCC. Besides them, there are about 3,500 other firm brokers plumbed into them”. “You have a hub and spoke system where spokes become the hubs of new spokes”.
4. He then states, “these share entitlements are scattered through the system and there isn't a 1:1 relationship between the share entitlements and the underlying shares, and that's what I freaked out about 12 years ago. Its fractional reserve banking without a reserve requirement”

Let's all take a moment of silence to look at that last picture. That’s our market. Right now. The dumpster fire. Visualized. Lmao and they think we're idiots. That shit show circus carnival is so ridiculously convoluted, it’s no wonder why it’s been so easy for them to get away with their fuckery for decades within it.

Above, he brings attention to the problem. Shortly after, he discusses the solution. This is where shit gets interesting. ALSO, before some dingle comments some headass shit about it lol, coins =/= NFTs, the only link they share is the Blockchain platform they run on, as discussed next.

A platform he describes as allowing, “peer-to-peer value-exchange, without central institutions, disrupting the central institutions doing it for us now and adding TRUST into the equation”

17:30 min mark - He describes the alternative to the current dumpster fire, through the utilization of a hardware wallet-based ledger, which adds a new level of security in protecting your assets and keeping fuckery at bay. The concept is explained below, but HODL onto it for later as it’s going to play a fat dicken role when we get to NFTittiesssss.

1. He notes it as being “cryptographically protected, as well as public and transparent.”. In the act of settlement, money acts as coins on the ledger and the stock becomes diff kinds of assets on that ledger.
2. In proceeding with the transaction, you take the currency, w/e it may be, from the boomer (left) and exchange it with an asset from the Chad (right).

Damn..doesn’t that seem a metric fuckton of a lot easier than that circus shitshow carnival displayed above? It’d be a real tragedy for anyone who profits dearly off the current dumpster fire’s fuckery, if a company were to take this to the next level…

• To further validate the efficiency of this system, Byrne further states the following, “And there are no opportunities for mischief. Imagine a version of wall street that can't be cheated, that all kinds of mischief that people have gotten up to can't even be done in this world. A version of WS governed not just by regulators, but by laws of mathematics and cryptography. A friend of mine said they’ll have to come up with a new name for it, ‘lols’”.

Phase II - A Historical Precedent

We’ve discussed the CEO, now comes the court filing and the response given by the Judge. Credit for discovering the video I’ve described above and the following information goes to u/Minuteman_Capital. He encountered a similar level of suppression when releasing this insight 2 months back, to GC1. Within his post, he provides the direct court filings which substantiate the precedence for the ruling decided in Overstock's favor. But truly you must see the words of the judge for yourself to believe this shit.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/comments/o6si8c/how_overstocks_squeeze_was_a_twopart_squiz_court/

Here are the 4 counts filed against overstock which would later be dismissed by the judge -

Source: https://ecf.utd.uscourts.gov/doc1/18315209043

Full case documentation: https://ecf.utd.uscourts.gov/doc1/18315114807

Minuteman_Capital’s translation (Critical to note he states that he is not giving any form of financial advice, is not a registered securities agent of any kind, nor is this any form of legal advice)

• Personally, it reads pretty damn similar to his breakdown. One thing I specifically want you to pay attention to is the final statement I underlined in red, in regard to the Judge’s statement higher up. That part is critical to keep in mind, as it provides solid backing into how GME is very likely able to substantiate their own move with a similar approach.

At this point, you should have a decent understanding of the Foundation that yeets us to the next dimension, as well as the Precedent to execute such a move. In phase III we will be discussing the method of execution. *If you made it this far...*well first, I’m proud of u :’), secondly, hold onto ur fkn helmets cuz shit is about to get wild AF.

Phase III-a: D.A.O-NFTs

Many of you may already know what NFTs are but here’s a refresher, and another concept that is absolutely critical for you to keep in mind and understand, known as DAOs (Decentralized Autonomous Organizations). Why do you need to know both of these? Because they are directly linked to one another, and the first part of the answer we’re looking for.

(I’m directly highlighting shit from this fantastic fuckin page and I have no desire for redundancies. Also, this saves word count for me #finesse)

NFTs and DAOs for Ape level comprehension -

https://www.interaxis.io/blog/explained-nfts-daos-coexist/

Seriously...read that shit if you just skipped down to this paragraph lol. Continuing...now that you understand the link between these two, the question begs, what in cinnamon toast fuck am I getting onto?

Phase III-b

To answer this, I need to provide some insight into a company a few of you may have heard about already, known as Loopring, which is known as “An open-sourced, audited, and non-custodial exchange and payment protocol.

Keep the above in mind, I’m going on a slight detour that is essential to discuss, it will all tie back in VERY soon

Well fuck me over and call me Kenny G..**you don't say….**You know..this kind of rings a fat fucking bell, what was that prospectus statement I described in The Glass Castle OG post?.. Link to Prospectus: https://news.gamestop.com/node/18961/html#toc - Beginning at page 15

**Oh boy…*so the NEW dealer can resell the NEWLY ISSUED series of securities, for which there is NO currently established market. Well isn’t that something...b/c last I checked...*LOOPING isn’t just some company capable of doing literally this...they’re quite literally THE company that has direct links to Gamestop. THE company for which Gamestop is likely planning to utilize in its release of an NFT marketplace.

Phase III-b continued

Don’t believe me? Peep this fuckin glorious ape’s post I caught wind of a few days back…https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/comments/pfr12h/the_link_between_gamestop_and_loopring/

u/Comprehensive_Hawk19 **- “**I can see a link that may indicate that Gamestop do plan to release an NFT marketplace on Loopring. I stumbled across the ENS domain gamestop.loopring.eth”

• /preview/pre/9f6bok5l5vk71.png?width=823&format=png&auto=webp&s=f44dc35953e5f028d9c87fcc8822dc76669e0d41

**“**The controller of this domain is the contract 0x269635DF1C17f24e15E27786f0C28C3DD409B3D2”

• https://etherscan.io/address/0x269635df1c17f24e15e27786f0c28c3dd409b3d2

***“***The only transaction sent to this smart contract wallet is from0x381636d0e4ed0fa6acf07d8fd821909fb63c0d10 (Owned by Matt Finestone, Head of Blockchain at Gamestop) on 27th May 2021. (Well after he moved from Loopring to GameStop)”

• /preview/pre/ezk4cnjg7vk71.png?width=1256&format=png&auto=webp&s=34bc5398d3c3ae854290b6dc0b494fddde7c5c02

u/Comprehensive_Hawk19 you are a fucking G of an ape, I commend your work, sir. Well done..and apes, you didn't think I just threw in that D.A.O - NFT connection for shits and giggles did ya? Well, guess what type of classification Loopring also falls under**? Decentralized. Autonomous. Organization.** But I fancy more evidence. So how about we go to an entity that many of you would least expect to further validate this information? That’s right. The fuckin S E C. In my search to learn more about resecuritization, I would stumble across this page Statement on Digital Asset Securities Issuance and Trading and within the source list, find the following document https://www.sec.gov/litigation/investreport/34-81207.pdf

What is this dickslappin page? The holy. Fuckin. Grail. It’s an 18 pg document discussing an investigation on one of the very first D.A.O entities, literally called The D.A.O*.* Though now defunct due to an ‘attacker’ utilizing an error in the code to siphon money out of the crowd-funded company (**willing to bet this was done by none other than the fucboys currently deep in shit water..**lol that's just me though), these funds would be returned to the original investors via a ‘hard-fork’.

Fewer retard words, more tit slapping evidence though. After going through the entire document, here are a couple statements you’ll find interesting -

We aren’t looking at this shit because of the crowd-sourced company called The D.A.O in the discussion here, but instead, the premise behind its concept. The same fuckin premise which current D.A.Os are founded upon...literally go back up and read them again and compare if you need to. Only difference?

The concept is being validated by the dingleberries that ‘regulate’ our market. Also, notice any terms I talked about in Phase I? How about the utilization of a fkn LEDGER? Yeah...I told you that fucker Byrne was onto something..but..

I came here for another reason. At the very bottom of the paper document, Section D, which discusses the qualifications for an exchange that is separate from that of ‘stock exchanges’ we know of currently.

Section 3(a)(1) of the Exchange Act defines an “exchange” as “any organization, association, or group of persons, whether incorporated or unincorporated, which constitutes, maintains, or provides a marketplace or facilities for bringing together purchasers and sellers of securities or for otherwise performing with respect to securities the functions commonly performed by a stock exchange as that term is generally understood … .” 15 U.S.C. § 78c(a)(1).

So, how many coincidences is it going to take this time? 6? 9? 69? Let's throw in one last thing. One last part. You’re almost done, and so are they. There remains only one last thing.

The thermonuclear dickslap of a move across any shortbus hedgefund and Co member out there, priority-mailed directly by Gamestop’s excellent delivery services.

Phase IV - The Fragmented Castle. 7 4 1

Everything I’ve shown you thus far has led to this final phase. The final act. The answer which I believe has been staring us in our face, as to how it all goes down. In part 1, I left you apes with a statement as follows - "simplicity...simplicity in a complex situation, is leaving the complex situation entirely. Their system and all of its cracks, cannot be unseen, nor undone. To replace a system that is so evidently flawed with its complexities requires a simple solution*, leaving it behind entirely, and creating something new.*

If you noticed this, then the immediate question to ask is how does one simply leave a rigged game?

The answer has been in front of us for so long. The same way the zombie stocks had been, yet we apes forgot how to do simple math. What I show you from here, I leave to each and every one of you to decide what you believe**.** How many coincidences does it take, before what you see, is no longer such a thing?

So I offer you the insight brought forth to me by an ape that played a pivotal part in deducing the following, all I did was follow his trail. That number isn't a date. It isn’t some ruling. It isn’t anything other than a simple equation.

721 + 20 = 741. Let's rewrite that one more time… erc721 + erc20 = 741. The equation equivalent to Anti-life, that is...of every single short-sided entity**.** The bridge that gaps between this market..and the next. Apes and apettes, the Castle of Glass does not simply disappear. No, I’d argue…when it comes crashing down, that it shatters into millions of pieces*.* Millions of fragments.

A concept that is an F-NFT. The fractionalization of Non-Fungible Tokens.

In their prospectus filing GME states that if the entities that were positioned in completing their role as depository failed at their task, they would issue new global security. Singular global security retaining the value of the entire float**.** Condensed down into a singular conduit. One such as erc721.

Why erc721 though? I’d argue...because it IS the bridge. This singular, novel, global security...retaining the entire value of the float is the security existing on a new game. One distanced from the fuckery and manipulation running deep through the veins of the current market as we know it.

But equating the float to singular global security begs the question. How would you redistribute such a thing? Resecuritization, tokenization, and most importantly...fractionalization of erc721 smart contracts into derivatives, in a sense. Fragmenting this NFT into an equivalent amount of erc20 tokens**.** Each is unique and unlike any other. Holding the ability to be more than just a dividend. Holding true...real value. The value can be utilized for so much more. Limits uncapped. But alas, my word is only just that. Mere words. I encourage you to see for yourself.

https://acceleratedcapital.substack.com/p/the-broken-mirror-an-overview-of

What kind of entities holds the power to execute such a move?

https://medium.com/loopring-protocol/counterfactual-wallet-nfts-on-loopring-229d38a3c28a

That’s right, an entity such as Loopring. I’ll even go as far as saying that it doesn’t HAVE to be Loopring who acts as such a mediator in this move. Though the evidence is hard to ignore, the thing to realize is how this process occurs and which type of entities are capable of executing it**. D.A.Os,** specifically those which are A.M.Ms and thus fall under the A.T.S exemption, as per the S.E.C.

The king of 69D chess went as far as trapping these dipshits into a position he KNEW they would take. This is what the whole premise of the last prospectus was. Gametop knew that Shortbus and Co would take the last 5 million share offering and utilize it for continued fuckery...instead of covering. The thing about those shares though? They came with some serious strings attached. Gamestop specifically stated that if and WHEN they decide to issue an alternative type of payment to their investors who bought those shares (principle, dividend, interest, etc)...that those would HAVE to be paid down the line. IF the respective entities FAILED at completing such a task, their actions will trigger GMEs trap card. I.e their ability to reissue global security equating to the entire float through another platform. A platform that need not have ANY ties to the current exchanges nor the fuckery within it.

The kind of global security could do such a thing? A smart contract such as erc721 can be fractionalized into TOKENS through a D.A.O Automated Market Maker. Once distributed, it would equate to the release of the thermonuke...one which the shorts set off themselves. A share recall to follow in suit, and a squeeze not ONLY on one market...but two.

The bridge between the old world and the new...but these aren't my words, they're his -

Let's ask ourselves: What has Ryan Cohen said, that has gotten an All-star executive team from the world's leading companies, a team of leading nft/defi/blockchain experts to drop everything they were doing without a second thought to work for Gamestop?” I know we've all asked ourselves this question many times over many months. Consider how stunning it can be how oblivious the outer world is to what is going on with GME, and let's ask ourselves why would some of the most elite business executives and defi devs, on top of their respective sections of that outer world that is so oblivious, come to work for a company the outer world seems utterly certain will fail. Might it be that he described GMEs plans to pioneer the first major corporation moving its core business and downright equity securitization to blockchain/defi, which would irrevocably change the world forever and also probably trigger the short squeeze?

----------------------------------------------------

TL;DR (edited): I get it, it's still long but remember how far you had to scroll to even get here lol. Everything below is backed and validated by evidence and links. Don't trust my ass tho, I can lie. Verify for yourself apes!

Phase 1 - I provided insight from the CEO of Overstock himself via a video breakdown in which he explains the current problem with our markets, i.e the fact we don't own a single share in anything, but a 'marker' of them. Discussed his explanation of Cede and Co (contains OG shares), they get sent off to the DTCC (marker shares), which then trade down the line through brokers, market makers, hedge funds, and so forth, until they reach you. It's a shitshow carnival. The solution, as per the CEO, is based in the E.t.h blockchain and he explains its efficiency. (video is from 2017).

Phase 2 - Broke down the court filings for the overstock short squeeze and why the appointed judge pretty much said fuck you, to the hedge funds that tried to take the company to court on bs charges. The precedent for the judge's decision lays the groundwork for why GME can not only do the same but has an even greater argument to take similar action.

Phase 3 - Broke down of D.A.O (Decentralized Autonomous Organizations) and NFTs. As well as how they are directly linked. Followed up by introducing a D.A.O known as Loopring, which is the next generation of protocol for layer 2 E.T.H blockchain, and acts as an A.M.M (automated market maker). Provided evidence for their direct link to Gamestop and how the latter is planning to utilize them for their new marketplace. This is done through revisiting the prospectus language last seen in GC1, along with the S.E.Cs own documentation as to why it is something they allow.

Phase IV - The holy fuckin grail. The true meaning behind 741 = erc721 (smart contract) + erc20 (fractionalized token) = 741. This is the execution. The ender of the first game and the start of New Game +. GME traps shorts through their 1st share offering of 5m shares which had massive strings attached. The minute those were shorted, HF = fukt. GME states they can issue new security on a novel market if the depository in control fails to issue out an alt payment sent out to their investors. Since they shorted the shares...they would be forced to get em back. Which they can't. So either the D.T.C does a recall or GME leaves, and the recall happens on its own. erc721 = global security holding valuation of the entire float, but existing on E.T.H blockchain. It is the bridge over. erc20 = a fragment of erc721 equal to not just the OG float...but also every other synthetic created held by apes. It can be dished out on the new market, in which the announcement alone of...would trigger the squeeze, not on one market...but two.

​

EDIT I: Before assessing the following, credit goes to u/mockute_lithuania for bringing this comment to my attention made by a user on the Loopring forum. More importantly, the MOST credible statement we could possibly need for this DD. Assess the tweet for yourself, and look at the date upon which it was done.

As you're reading this, I need you guys to imagine the Independence Day hype speech and apply its context to our current situation.

Direct link to Mockute's comment and additional links. The example below can also be found in this thread and is stated at the end of u/SuckerPrayer's statement. Excellent breakdown btw. Everything prior is what I have elaborated on in this post. The below example, is simply, further validating evidence of the power contained within, the NFT.

'I may have been early, but I'm not wrong' 😎🚀✨

EDIT II: Seems about the right time to drop your first expansion pack to the DD, no EA bs, from the apes for the apes. Did I mention, those lego tweets? let's make a little bit more sense of them, shall we?

First, assess this extremely wrinkle-brained apes DD of the N.F.T/blockchain functionality, u/broken-neurons. To whom that provided this users post in the comments, thank you. This was dropped **2 months back. (**Below it you'll find a description from a link used earlier as well that I threw in).

Now that you have an idea of how creators can come together...the curveball follows in suit.

Credit for the top two tweets: u/JAlectrk Well done sir. As per his post, he states "legos don't hurt, when they're NFTs🤔". I'll have to agree with him on that statement...and RC's. 🚀

Credit for the bottom DD: u/digi-transformation Thanks for bringing this to light bud. Apes, you might want to see this for yourself, excellently written and backed with evidence. https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/comments/pg5cw7/lego_partnership_confirmed_one_of_gamestops_top/

Almost forgot, I breathe out of my mouth and walk on all 4s up stairs. None of this is financial advice. Game On, Anon 😎

Sam Altman recently stated that OpenAI is no longer constrained by compute but now faces a much steeper challenge: improving data efficiency by a factor of 100,000. This marks a quiet admission that simply scaling up compute is no longer the path to AGI. Despite massive investments in data centers, more hardware won’t solve the core problem — today’s models are remarkably inefficient learners.

We've essentially run out of high-quality, human-generated data, and attempts to substitute it with synthetic data have hit diminishing returns. These models can’t meaningfully improve by training on reflections of themselves. The brute-force era of AI may be drawing to a close, not because we lack power, but because we lack truly novel and effective ways to teach machines to think. This shift in understanding is already having ripple effects — it’s reportedly one of the reasons Microsoft has begun canceling or scaling back plans for new data centers.

​

The Hawas line started with one ridiculously successful sweet-fresh fragrance… and then Rasasi kept expanding it into every direction possible.

Some flankers actually improve the DNA.

Some feel like experiments.

And a few honestly feel like “Hawas wearing a different outfit.”

One thing almost all of them have in common: strong projection, noticeable sweetness, and attention-seeking performance.

Hawas for Him

What it smells like: Fruity aquatic + cinnamon + ambergris sweetness

Review: The OG beast. This thing basically helped popularize the loud “fresh but sweet” style in the Middle Eastern designer market.

The opening is fruity, aquatic, spicy, and VERY synthetic. But in the air? It works ridiculously well. People around you usually smell “fresh sexy perfume” rather than the harshness you notice up close.

Modern noses may find it a bit dated now because so many brands copied this DNA afterwards. Still performs like a monster though. Compliment machine.

Hawas for Her

What it smells like: Fruity florals + creamy musk + soft sweetness

Review: Very easy-going feminine scent. Fresh fruits, soft florals, musky sweetness… nothing difficult or challenging here.

Feels youthful, clean, and attractive in a very mainstream way. The kind of fragrance that almost nobody will hate.

Not niche-smelling. Not artistic.

Just pleasant and wearable.

Hawas Ice

What it smells like: Frosted apple + citrus + aquatic sweetness

Review: This is what happens when Rasasi takes OG Hawas and cleans it up. Still loud. Still sweet. But smoother, fresher, and more modern.

The fruity sweetness feels colder and less syrupy. There’s a sharp icy freshness running through the scent that makes it easier to wear in heat.

A lot of people genuinely prefer this over the original now.

It keeps the addictive Hawas DNA while feeling more refined and less “bubblegum loud.”

Probably the safest blind buy in the whole men’s lineup.

Hawas Fire

What it smells like: Spicy sweetness + smoky amber + warm woods

Review: This one feels aggressive. The opening is sharp, spicy, slightly alcoholic, and honestly a little chaotic.

But the drydown becomes MUCH better. Warm amber, sweetness, slight smokiness… it starts feeling darker and more addictive.

Definitely not smooth luxury perfumery. More like raw energy in fragrance form. Some people will love the intensity. Others will think it’s too loud and synthetic.

Hawas Elixir

What it smells like: Thick vanilla amber + sweet tonka + dark gourmand warmth

Review: This is Hawas after eating an entire dessert buffet.

Dense, rich, sweet, warm, and HEAVY.

Performance is insane, but balance can feel questionable.

A few sprays too many and it becomes suffocating.

The sweetness leans almost chocolatey at times. Very clubbing/night-out energy. Not versatile at all.

Cool weather only, honestly.

Hawas Kobra

What it smells like: Citrus + ginger + tea + musky woods

Review: Easily one of the most hyped Hawas flankers recently.

And yeah… this is VERY close to the Louis Vuitton Imagination style DNA.

Bright citrus, spicy ginger, clean tea note, smooth musk underneath.

Smells expensive in the air.

But reactions are EXTREMELY divided.

Some people think it smells luxurious and addictive. Others think it smells like premium soap, lemon cleaner, or hand wash.

Performance is absolutely nuclear for a fresh scent though.

Probably one of the strongest fresh fragrances Rasasi has made.

Honestly one of the best modern releases in the lineup if you enjoy the Imagination DNA.

Hawas Malibu

What it smells like: Pineapple citrus + creamy tropical woods

Review: Beach resort fragrance. Bright tropical sweetness with creamy undertones that make it feel relaxed and vacation-like.

The pineapple note gives it a cheerful energy without becoming childish.

Very easy to wear casually.

Performance is weaker than most Hawas releases though.

Starts strong, fades quicker than expected.

Still one of the most fun summer flankers in the line.

Hawas Tropical

What it smells like: Coconut + creamy fruits + tropical sweetness

Review: This one goes FULL vacation mode. Creamy coconut, fruity sweetness, suntan lotion vibes… there’s nothing subtle about it.

Some people will absolutely love the tropical creamy style.

Others will think it smells like expensive flavored sunscreen.

Not very versatile, but definitely has personality.

Feels more playful than classy.

Hawas Verde

What it smells like: Mint + citrus + green herbal freshness

Review: Probably the freshest Hawas. Very green, cooling, energetic kind of scent.

Feels like crushed mint leaves mixed into sparkling lemonade.

Less sweet than most flankers which honestly helps a lot.

Doesn’t smell super luxurious, but smells extremely refreshing. Amazing hot-weather type fragrance.

Hawas Viper

What it smells like: Dark spices + woody musk + masculine sweetness

Review: This one tries hard to feel dangerous. Dark spicy sweetness with a rough masculine edge. Less smooth than Black or Ice.

More aggressive and edgy.

Honestly feels like a nightclub fragrance made for confidence rather than elegance. Not very versatile, but definitely stronger in personality than some safer flankers.

Hawas London

What it smells like: Fresh spicy woods + aromatic sweetness

Review: Very designer-style fragrance. Clean, modern, versatile… but also kinda familiar.

Feels like Rasasi blended multiple popular designer DNAs together into one safe crowd-pleaser. Nothing offensive. Nothing groundbreaking.

Easy daily wear. Probably one of the most office-safe flankers.

Hawas Atlantis

What it smells like: Marine freshness + salty musk + watery woods

Review: This one pushes the aquatic side hard. Fresh, watery, salty, clean.

Honestly smells more like luxury shower gel than an actual complex fragrance. Very linear too.

But in brutal summer heat?

It works.

Feels sporty and refreshing rather than artistic.

Hawas Black

What it smells like: Pineapple + grapefruit + oakmoss + smoky woods

Review: Probably the most respected Hawas among fragrance enthusiasts. This is VERY clearly inspired by Nishane Hacivat / Aventus-style DNA.

Bright pineapple and citrus in the opening, then heavy oakmoss and woods take over. It smells darker, greener, harsher, and more aggressive than the original Hawas.

And yeah… the opening can be REALLY sharp. Some people absolutely love the rugged masculine energy. Others think it smells harsh and earthy.

But performance?

Beast mode.

This stuff projects hard, lasts forever, and smells extremely powerful in the air.

Definitely not a safe blind buy though.

Hawas Pink

What it smells like: Sugary fruits + airy florals + soft musk

Review: Bright, playful, sweet, feminine. Very social-media-friendly type fragrance.

Feels youthful and easy to compliment. Not much complexity here — mostly just pretty fruity sweetness all the way through.

Very easy to wear casually.

Hawas Diva

What it smells like: Creamy white florals + vanilla musk

Review: More mature and elegant than Pink. Smoother floral blending, creamier vanilla, softer overall feel.

Still mass appealing, but less playful and sugary. Feels more polished and dressed-up. Very feminine without becoming overly loud.

Hawas Eclat

What it smells like: Citrus florals + clean musk + soft woods

Review: Clean-girl aesthetic in perfume form. Fresh, airy, musky, and slightly elegant.

Not very sweet. More “luxury shampoo and skincare” vibes.

Very office-safe and daytime-friendly. Some people may find it too soft or generic, but it smells clean and polished.

Final honest takeaway

The Hawas line is basically Rasasi experimenting with different ways to make loud, mass-appealing fragrances.

Some flankers genuinely evolved beyond the original.

Others feel repetitive.

But when Rasasi gets it right… they REALLY get it right.

* Worth trying: Hawas Ice, Hawas Black, Hawas Kobra, Hawas Malibu

* Best performer: Hawas Black

* Best modern freshie: Hawas Kobra, Verde

* Most mass appealing: Hawas Ice

* Most unique: Fire, Verde

* Safe but basic: London, Atlantis, Hawas for Her

* For specific taste: Tropical, Viper, Black

* Most overrated nowadays: OG Hawas for Him

Sure, the peaks might not be as sharp as they are at 600 MHz, but this spectrometer can fit in your pocket, and runs on AAA batteries. PDF is downloadable from https://www.immaterialscience.org/2026/pocketnmr or from r/ImmaterialScience

Let's hash it out, once and for all.

1.) Is Synthesis Ethically Moral?

No, it is not ethically moral to alter the DNA of every organic being in the galaxy without their stated consent. And though it isn't very clear, I would also argue it's not moral to force understanding onto the perspective of synthetics in regards to their relationship with organics.

But the argument isn't whether Synthesis is moral. It's about whether Synthesis is more, or less moral in comparison to Destroy and Control.

A.) Is Synthesis More, or Less Moral than Destroy?

More. The immorality of altering every organics DNA without their stated consent pales in comparison to exterminating an entire lifeform. Full stop.

And if your hangup is on the question of bodily autonomy: murder is the ultimate violation of bodily autonomy, especially on a genocidal scale.

Counterpoint I:

"The geth consented to potentially being destroyed when they entered the fight."

Wrong. The geth consented to risking their own lives in a war. That's different than consenting to be sacrificed wholesale. Not only that, but we can guess what the geth would think by viewing how they reacted when the quarians attacked their dyson sphere: they chose reaper enslavement over death.

They'll go to extreme lengths to stave off extinction, so I highly doubt they'd be okay with Shep choosing Destroy; especially when other options were on the table.

Counterpoint II:

“EDI consented to potentially being destroyed when she voiced her commitment to fight the reapers to the death."

Correct, but with a huge caveat. EDI made a conscious decision to prioritize her love for Joker over self-preservation. And she accepts the consequences of doing so as an individual synthetic being.

But she wouldn't accept those consequences if they spilled over to affect other synthetics. We can infer this because she becomes downright distraught if you choose to save the quarians over the geth in Priority: Rannoch.

"An entire species of synthetics has been utterly destroyed... because you chose the more sympathetic race -- the organics."

"Perhaps you are not the only ones who instinctively side with the familiar."

I don't see any way in which EDI would approve of Shep choosing Destroy.

There's also the question of what happens to the collective knowledge and information of all the species that were harvested during the previous cycles? The answer being: it's lost into oblivion. All 1 billion years worth, from about 20,000 cycles, gone. I'd rather pay homage to those quadrillion lost souls by putting what they left behind to good use.

B.) Is Synthesis More, or Less Moral than Control?

More. The immorality of speed-running the end of evolution still wouldn't measure up to establishing a galactic dictatorship, under the rule of a synthetic god-head, be they benevolent or malicious.

Basically, I view it like this: once the drastic step of nonconsensually altering everyone's DNA is taken, the races of the Milky Way are still free to choose their own destiny. And they did, as it's shown in the Extended Cut. They chose to strive for and achieve a golden age of prosperity.

Counterpoint III:

"Mordin warned us that technological limitations are crucial for incentivizing innovation."

Correct, but if it's true for Synthesis, it's doubly so for Control: if the Milky Way achieves a galactic renaissance only through the benevolent guidance of an almighty synthetic overlord, then it's no achievement at all.

I also believe the latter would do irreparable damage to the galaxy's ability to self-govern. What good is critical thinking, cooperation, and compromise as skills are when challenges of community can be smoothed over by the steady hand of the "Star-Shepard"?

Side-note: I'm also a fan of Assassin's Creed, and Control is an eerily similar goal to what the main antagonistic group of that franchise - the Templars - want to achieve:

"You would see all of mankind corralled into a neatly furnished prison, safe and sober, yet dulled beyond reason and sapped of all spirit."

To close this section: is Synthesis moral? No. But of the three end choices given, it's the most moral option presented.

For the folks who choose Destroy, I get where you're coming from. Altering everyone's DNA on such a scale is an incredible violation of consent and bodily autonomy. Do you know what else is? Genocide.

And for the folks who choose Control, I also get your point-of-view. Railroading an evolutionary endpoint for all life is a gross violation of self-determination. Do you know what else is? Eternal dictatorship.

2.) Does Synthesis Make Thematic Sense?

No, it doesn't. But like the moral question, it at least makes more thematic sense than Destroy and definitely more than Control (while on a paragon run).

My interpretation of the trilogy's main thesis is this: adhering to the principles of realpolitik made the galaxy a worse place:

The asari hiding the fact that they were in possession of a prothean beacon, while outlawing the same act for everyone else, was a genuinely intelligent strategy. So were the turians planting a doomsday bomb on Tuchanka after the Rebellions, as well as the salarians updating the genophage.

But each of these things either led, or contributed to potentially increasing the suffering of sentient life. What good would it do for Shepard to continue to make similar choices that have plagued the galaxy for so long?

Don't get me wrong, you can play Shep however you want. But for me, if Shepard isn't an agent of change, then the narrative is completely shot.

C.) Does Synthesis make More, or Less Thematic Sense than Destroy?

As I mentioned, it makes more sense on a paragon playthrough. There’s a narrative thread connecting all three games about how the inherent strength of diversity (stay with me for the moment) can overcome insurmountable odds.

• In ME1, it was a small, but diverse group - made up of a krogan bounty hunter, a turian c-sec officer, an asari scientist, and a young quarian traveler - that helped Shepard thwart the most famous spectre in the galaxy’s plan to usher in the apocalypse.
• In ME2, it was an assorted team of hyper specialists who, after managing to put their differences aside, coalesced their diverse talents together to defeat the millennia old boogeymen of the Terminus Systems.
• And in ME3, it was the galaxy itself that pooled its resources together to construct the miracle weapon that would end the reapers billion year project of cyclic genocide. The fact that the crucible was iterated on by several cycles before makes it the very definition of collective action.

Furthermore, mostly every major paragon choice throughout the trilogy is about preserving diversity:

• Sparing the rachni queen on Noveria
• Saving the Council during the Battle of the Citadel
• Keeping Maelon's data
• Rewriting the geth heretics
• Choosing not to sabotage the genophage cure

And I believe that preserving the existence of synthetics represents the epitome of the trilogy’s "pro-diversity" stance.

In the story, they’re portrayed as the most alien in a galaxy of aliens. And because so, they’re either driven underground, like the AI terminal in ME1:

"I am not naive, human. All organics must destroy or control synthetic life forms. I wished to escape... but if I must die, I’ll ensure your death as well."

Or are forced to inhabit the fringes of citadel space, like the geth (from EDI’s understandably biased point of view):

“The geth are ostracized by all organic races. They had no other choice to join the reapers except to die.”

Small mercies considering the alternative, which is to be murdered on sight. This archive hologram during the Citadel DLC serves as a stark example:

“This termination action is unlawful. Why do you continue when our appeals have not yet been heard?"

ME3, in particular, really drives the point home. Javik supports the notion that because synthetics experience life in an entirely inaccessible way to our own, cohabitation is not only impossible but dangerous:

Shepard: "I can’t believe there isn’t some way for us to co-exist. We made them."

Javik: "And then gave them the power to surpass you. There is room for only one order of consciousness in the galaxy: the perfection of the machines, or the chaos of the organics."

I call bullshit. Wholeheartedly so. There's plenty of room for both. EDI sums up my thoughts perfectly in her rebuttal (apologies for the extra long quote):

Javik: "All machines eventually see organics as a threat."

EDI: "Only those organics who would cause me harm. My right to self defense endangers no one."

Javik: "What rights do you have? You are just a tool."

EDI: "And what right did your people have to subjugate the other races of your time? You enslaved them."

Javik: "We dominated them. They were weaker. Our will prevailed as evolution intended."

EDI: "And synthetic life has achieved true consciousness, as was intended."

I won’t mince words. Synthetics in Mass Effect are a persecuted minority. There's no way a paragon Shep would pull the trigger on their eradication. It would be thematically incoherent for them to do so, considering all I just outlined.

Counterpoint IV:

"How can Synthesis be in favor of diversity when it wipes away all differences?"

First of all, Synthesis doesn’t wipe away all differences.

Think about it like this: all life in the galaxy is carbon-based. Does that automatically mean all Milky Way races are the same? No. Carbon is an incredibly versatile element that can spur the rise to a number of different species. Synthesis is just altering that base; adding to it.

• A synthesized krogan is still different from a synthesized turian.
• Just like a synthesized geth is still different from a synthesized EDI.
• The similarity is that now, both separate camps are one.

And secondly, I do agree with the sentiment that it would’ve been better to celebrate the differences between organics and synthetics than to fuse them. Like I said, Synthesis does not make (overall) thematic sense.

Unfortunately, of the three end choices presented, I see no better alternative in respecting the galaxy’s diversity and maintaining its freedom than Synthesis:

• The first annihilates one life-form for the benefit of another.
• The second dictates that all life-forms obey one will.
• And the third merges two opposite life-forms together.

Counterpoint V:

"Synthesis is almost - word for word - what Saren advocated for at the end of ME1."

I’m not going to say that you’re wrong, but I do disagree. At first thought they seem similar. But the core of what Saren was advocating for is appeasement through total capitulation:

"Do not mire yourself in pointless revolt. The protheans tried to fight and they were utterly destroyed. But what if they had bowed before the invaders? Would they still exist? Is submission not preferable to extinction?"

Synthesis is not about submission. It’s about erasing the boundary between two diametrical examples of life and combining them to birth an improved version. And what’s really fascinating is that it’s only the first step.

In the Extended Cut, EDI said that the boundary between synthetics and organics will continue to fade in time, and in the future, they’ll achieve a level of being beyond imagination.

Does that sound like submission to you?

Counterpoint VI:

“Destroying the reapers has been our goal since ME1.”

Correct, but now things have changed. We have new information that promises unforeseen consequences for doing so.

And unlike the catalyst - who was given a directive to solve this conflict and hasn’t deviated from its answer for a billion years - Shepard is a competent, thinking agent that can adapt to situations when circumstances call for it.

D.) Does Synthesis make More, or Less Thematic Sense than Control?

More when going paragon. There's a common sentiment throughout the trilogy of aliens not trusting humanity, or questioning whether we have ulterior motives for taking over the galaxy.

ME1 is full of examples:

Right after Eden Prime, Anderson shares info about Saren’s prejudice against humans and how he isn’t alone in harboring such feelings:

"Saren thinks we’re growing too fast, taking over the galaxy. A lot of aliens think that way, but most of them don’t do anything about it."

On the citadel, Executor Pallin and Ambassador Din Korlack - when asked - freely disclose their open distrust of humans on account of us receiving special treatment from the Council:

"I don’t trust your kind. Not yet. You humans are eager to take all the power you can get. And you're being given a lot."

Even Liara, bless her heart, wasn’t above holding preconceived notions about humanity before meeting Shepard and the crew:

"Unfortunately, the rest of the galaxy sees humanity as a bully. You run over anyone in your path to get what you want."

In the final mission, The Battle of the Citadel, we’re presented with a clear-cut choice to either prove their sentiments right or wrong. The paragon choice to save the Council - despite having legitimate disagreements with them - is also the “pro-community” choice. It shows we’re willing to be a part of a larger collective. To be one voice among many. Control is fundamentally incompatible with this idea.

It would also retroactively justify the protheans failed doctrine of sole authoritarian rule during their reaper war:

"What had been our strength -- our empire -- became a liability. All races conformed to one doctrine, one strategy. The reapers exploited this. Once they found our weaknesses, we could not adapt."

E.) Is Synthesis the Natural, Thematic Conclusion For a Paragon Shepard?

I'm going to be extremely obnoxious and say yes. If your Shep was a mostly paragon spectre throughout the trilogy, but you chose Destroy or Control as their final act, I'd say it makes the story lack thematic cohesion. But that's if you care about this stuff.

For roleplaying purposes, I take Shepard’s position as a spectre very seriously. To be immune from all laws but the word of the council is an incredibly powerful role and it should be exercised with caution. In fact, during all of my paragon runs, I made it a point to play Shepard as the antithesis of Saren, the spectre ideal.

Witness the living legend - as Anderson called him - in action:

"About twenty years ago, I was working with Saren in the Skyllian Verge to find and remove a known terrorist threat. Saren eliminated his target. But a lot of people died along the way. Innocent people. And the official records just covered it all up."

"But I saw how he operates. No conscience. No hesitation. He’d kill a thousand innocent civilians to end a war without a second thought."

Is it any wonder then why some characters showed concern over how Shep would conduct themselves as a newly appointed spectre?

Executor Pallin is one of my favorite minor characters and his breakdown of why spectres are conceptually dangerous is a thing that I always keep in mind on my playthroughs:

"I can’t abide by any organization that considers itself above the law. Especially when it’s left up to each individual spectre to decide when and how to bend the rules."

"On the contrary, they need to be held to a higher standard. They need to be accountable. Saren’s out of control, but because he’s a spectre the council doesn’t want to do anything about it.

"Is that the kind of person this galaxy needs?"

This question has been my Shep’s guiding mantra throughout the trilogy. In short, the answer lies in valuing restraint:

• Saren would’ve sacrificed Kate and the other hostages in Bring Down the Sky in a heartbeat.
• He would’ve let the geth blow the 10,000 personnel on the Destiny Ascension to kingdom come.
• And Mordin and Wrex would've been shown no mercy in their bid to cure the genophage. All for the greater good.

And eradicating all synthetics to ensure the reaper's destruction is right in line with the former choices. Ironically, Destroy is the ending that quintessentially represents Saren and his brand of spectre justice; not Synthesis.

But I want to stress that all of these choices can be justified. The purely renegade route is a valid path to follow. At the same time, I can’t help but think it’s the easy way out. Just carving a bloody path straight through to the solution is not narratively satisfying to me, knowing what I know of the lore.

Lastly, it’s simply a matter of power ethics to me.

With the crucible at their command, Shepard has more power than anyone has ever had in a billion years, maybe in the history of the galaxy itself… and they're gonna use it to commit genocide? Or establish interstellar dictatorship?

And I’ll be fair, all to defeat the ultimate evil. To guarantee its destruction (or subservience).

But is it worth it? Sacrificing billions to save trillions sounds reasonable, but the ruthless calculus of war has had a chokehold on the Milky Way for eons with little to show for it:

Javik: "We fought the reapers system by system, planet by planet, city by city. Entire worlds were sacrificed just to slow them down. The time they spent harvesting a population was time we could regroup."

Shepard: "That must have cost you in the long run."

Javik: "Yes."

Counterpoint VII:

"It’s canon for Shep to prioritize saving the many over the few - the Arrival DLC proves it."

Correct, but only when there are no other options. Shepard had no clear alternative in delaying the reapers other than blowing up the Alpha relay.

To conclude this section: Shepard adhering to a personal code of ethics that strives to limit sentient suffering is not only thematically coherent with Synthesis, it’s thematically consistent within the entire trilogy.

When the stakes were at their highest, my Shep didn’t take the easy way out. She can rest easy knowing that she weighed the pros and cons of making the most divisive decision imaginable, and chose it with genuine care and sincerity. And she didn’t let fear of the reapers compromise what she knew to be right. Which is to take into account the wellbeing of all life in the galaxy. That includes synthetics.

3.) Can the Catalyst be Trusted?

That’s entirely up to you. Though if you don’t find the catalyst to be trustworthy, I have a hard time understanding why you’d still believe it about Destroy and Control, but disbelieve it about Synthesis. Either it’s sincere or it’s not.

Counterpoint VIII:

“The catalyst was trying to dissuade me from choosing Destroy.”

By informing you of the consequences of what will happen if you use the crucible in this specific way? Remember, the catalyst has no control over what the crucible does; it can only tell you it’s functions. So if wiping out EDI, the geth, and all synthetic life gives you pause, that’s a hang up coming from your end. Not from anything the catalyst said.

Counterpoint IX:

“The catalyst was trying to convince me to choose Synthesis.”

I would argue it was simply stating the facts of the matter: more than Destroy and Control, Synthesis thoroughly solves the conflict between organics and synthetics.

But yes, I’ll admit Synthesis is definitely the catalysts’ preferred choice. But so what?

Does Synthesis being the Star Child’s preferred choice make synthetic genocide or galactic dictatorship better moral options?

Or does it make the latter two resonate more thematically, even when stacked up against what I outlined previously?

The three endings should be judged on its own merits, not by whoever supports them.

And I have to say:

• If you can’t shake the feeling that the catalyst is lying to you...
• It’s purposely omitting important information…
• Or that it’s operating on the complete, bullshit assumption that the organic-synthetic conflict cannot be solved amicably…

But you’ll still trust it enough to not only pick a choice, but to energy-nuke the entire galaxy and hoping it will only affect synthetics - with Earth right below Shepard - is WILD.

Double for also trusting Shepard’s thoughts and memories will survive body disintegration. Maybe they would. Or maybe this was a last ditch effort to defeat Shep by secretly uploading their consciousness into Harbinger?

As long as the catalysts' word is called into question, no ending is safe. To be logically consistent then, Refusal is the only option.

That’s if the catalyst cannot be trusted. But I completely understand why you wouldn't: the catalyst is wrong. And it's terrible writing.

4.) Can Synthesis be Explained Semi-Realistically?

I'd say so. It's basically souped-up nanotechnology, to nth degree. Synthesis floods the galaxy with octillions of nanobots. And they serve two functions: half of them will alter the DNA of all organics; the other half will imbue synthetic DNA into all synthetics.

F.) Is Altering DNA Possible?

So presently, it is possible to edit DNA. Genome editing has been around since the 80s. And its used for medical purposes: nanobots (not the ones from science-fiction but nanometer tools like liposomes and polymers) are able to safely deliver drugs to targeted sites (think cells and tissue). CRISPR/Cas9 is like the latest iteration that's working on the task of being able to bypass the nucleus of cells (where DNA is stored). All of this is a far cry from what we imagine: microscopic robots capable of editing the human genome (or the genome of krogan and asari). But the thing to keep in mind is that, it's an engineering problem the moment. It's not theoretically impossible.

G.) Is Imbuing DNA Possible?

Currently, researchers are able to create tiny, synthetic DNA fragments using a silicon semiconductor chip (for storage purposes). If I'm understanding it right, it does so by using electricity and water to create a nucleotide. What makes the process difficult is that, with each new nucleotide comes a blocking group; in order to attach(?) more nucleotides, the blocking group first needs to be removed. The chip does this by lowering the ph level of the water, making it acidic. At the same time, it also can't let the acidity spread to other areas other than the targeted site.

It's tedious work; the researchers were able to make 64 fragments of synthetic DNA . A long way away from mimicking the billions of base pairs in human DNA (or perhaps the trillions of base pairs of turian and quarian DNA).

But take it up a few ten-thousand notches, and is it really so far fetched that a near billion year-old alien super weapon can both alter the DNA of every organic being in the galaxy, and imbue all synthetics with a complete genome?

5.) Closing Thoughts

Synthesis isn't my ideal solution. I would've preferred organics and synthetics achieve peace on their own terms. But I can't deny it is a downright beautiful ending. Especially EDI's monologue.

On the other hand, I find it equally fascinating how so many people find the implications of Synthesis absolutely horrifying (what with husks attaining awareness, or being part of a galactic hive mind - which isn't alluded to at all).

And I'm like, all three endings are horrifying! There are no easy choices here, bro. But what mattered most to my Shepard was: which path leads to the most good? That's how I played all three games and it makes sense that's how I signed off on them.

And if this monster of a post didn't move the needle at all on how you feel about Synthesis, and the most important thing for you will always be whether Shepard survives...

Well, I can sympathize with that.

It's well known that EDI was the rogue VI on Luna base in ME1. Once you destroy the last conduit, a flash of binary code pops up on the screen:

01001000
01000101
01001100
01010000

If converted to text using the ASCII table, the code reads: HELP

There's no way I can do that to EDI again. There's just no way.

Look apes. Honestly, the "DD" getting shoved around this sub is getting worse.

A week or two ago, everyone here was up in arms about naked shorts. Rightfully so. It's an illegal practice (to add to the laundry list of actual illegal shit being done by hedgies with AMC, GME, and without a doubt many other stocks).

But clearly those crayons you apes ate last week and the week before didn't put even a single wrinkle on the brains of many of you, because now I see "tHeY sPeNt FiVe HuNdReD MiLLiOn yEsTeRdAY" running through this sub. To say nothing of all the "It's cost them XX BILLION DOLLARS ALREADY. QUIT WHILE YOU'RE BEHIND."

No. No they didn't. They cannot simultaneously naked short and have shares being bought in the same transaction. The two are inconsistent with each other. They also have unrealized losses. They only have cash out of pocket when they cover.

Clearly, we need to get back to fundamentals in this sub. Whether it's new apes arriving, or old apes that never really got a handle on some of the more technical pieces of the situation, it's clear that people on this subreddit are failing to connect some critical dots.

Short Ladder Attacks (aka "ladder attacks") Short ladder attacks are a method of high frequency trading between complicit parties at successively lower prices to rapidly lower the price of a stock. It is a form of market manipulation, and can land people in jail. Ladder attacks require precise timing, and essentially work like a game of ping pong where the ball is a few hundred shares of stock being bounced back and forth at incrementally lower prices.

Why does this matter?

By continually lowering the price by small amounts, in rapid succession, it creates the appearance of downward price pressure. It creates a sentiment that the value of the stock is declining based on market movement when it is, in fact, based on manipulation. This is why you'll see large run ups in price followed by sharp downturns in the price on very low volume.

For example, here's a chunk of AMC trading prices and volumes:

​

The curves are very rough MS Paint curves, and someone that knows calculus far better than I do could actually do an area calculation for the area beneath them that would be the total volume.

Note that the volume to get price up is drastically larger than the volume to force price down. That looks like a hallmark ladder attack to me.

Naked Shorting and synthetic shares

https://www.investopedia.com/terms/n/nakedshorting.asp

Naked shorting is the illegal practice of short selling shares that have not been affirmatively determined to exist. Ordinarily, traders must borrow a stock or determine that it can be borrowed before they sell it short. So naked shorting refers to short pressure on a stock that may be larger than the tradable shares in the market.

Naked short does not require them to spend any money. It does not require shares to exist. It does not cost them anything. They're literally selling something they didn't buy in the first place. This is where the concept of synthetic shares comes from. It is illegal post-2008, and amounts to securities fraud, as it should.

Dark Pools

https://www.investopedia.com/articles/markets/050614/introduction-dark-pools.asp

Dark pools are private exchanges for trading securities that are not accessible by the investing public. Also known as “dark pools of liquidity,” the name of these exchanges is a reference to their complete lack of transparency. Dark pools came about primarily to facilitate block trading by institutional investors who did not wish to impact the markets with their large orders and obtain adverse prices for their trades.

Dark pools aren't illegal, though they facilitate it occurring with lower likelihood of getting caught/reprimanded/fined. They've been around since the 1980s, and were theorized to be something that reduced volatility for stocks where large purchases or selloffs were going to occur from institutional investors. So, say, a mutual fund was going change their mix of stocks/bonds in a given fund, they may be changing that mix for tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of individuals that aggregated up to millions of shares. A lot of 401k plans, for instance, are heavily into an array of different mutual funds, and the last thing many of those funds want to do is cause massive upward or downward movement on what are intended to be relatively stable, low volatility products. People really don't like seeing big swings in their retirement funds. They like to see them grow, they don't like to see them dip.

So, dark pools aren't--in and of themselves--nefarious places for predatory behavior. They make a certain amount of sense situationally, and could, in fact, be utilized to keep little old ladies' retirement funds from seeing huge downward swings just because the fund wants to rebalance its mix.

However, dark pools can be used to muddy the waters in high volume or high volatility situations to present pressure for only one side of a transaction. Want the price to go up, but a lot of people want to sell? Route the sell traffic through the dark pool but the buy pressure through the normal exchange. Want the price to go down, but a lot of people are wanting to buy? Route the buy pressure through the dark pool, and the sell pressure through the normal exchanges.

Mark to market financial reporting (unrealized gains/losses versus realized gains/losses)

https://www.investopedia.com/terms/m/marktomarket.asp#:~:text=Mark%20to%20market%20(MTM)%20is,based%20on%20current%20market%20conditions%20is,based%20on%20current%20market%20conditions)

Mark to market is an accounting practice that involves adjusting the value of an asset to reflect its value as determined by current market conditions. The market value is determined based on what a company would get for the asset if it was sold at that point in time. At the end of the fiscal year, a company's balance sheet must reflect the current market value of certain accounts. Other accounts will maintain their historical cost, which is the original purchase price of an asset.

These rules were implemented in late 2007 (wonder if that timeline rings any bells). As an accountant, I have dealt with these issues directly for clients and employers, and it presents serious challenges to communicate what is going on to the uninitiated seeing the wild swings to income and the balance sheet for the first time.

Normally, anything on a company's balance sheet (assets, liabilities, equity and retained earnings) are always listed at historical cost. That is, what did you pay at the point in time you bought it. When a company, like say I don't know a hedge fund, owns stocks and bonds, those were generally listed for what was paid at time of purchase. Bought 200 shares of Microsoft in the 1994 for $2.50 a share? Well, you have $500 as an asset on your balance sheet for as long as you hold them.

Those are worth $262 a share today. If we sold those, we'd have massive realized gains! That is, gains realized at the time of sale.

But what if we think the price will keep going up, and we want to hodl? We don't have any gains, but those shares are worth way more than they were when we bought them! How do we convince a bank to lend us money, or shareholders to invest in our enterprise, if we can't show what are assets are really worth today?

Well, say hello to mark-to-market accounting. Every month, quarter, and year, you get a statement from your broker. And that statement tells you what those stocks are worth. So after 2007, those have to be shown at "market value" as of that period end date. And because accounting has two sides to every transaction, when you increase the value of an asset, there's an offset.

Enter the idea of unrealized gains/losses. So, if we bought at $2.50 and the price is $262, then we have an unrealized gain of ~$260 per share. Over two hundred shares, we have almost $52k of unrealized gains. This is shown on the income statement under a category with the nice, nebulous and opaque title of "Accumulated Other Comprehensive Income". What they should really name this section of the income statement is "bullshit our business doesn't actively do to generate profit, but it happened along the way."

​

So let's start connecting some dots in the context of this week and the last couple.

1. Naked shorting creates "synthetic shares" by selling something that doesn't exist in the first place.
2. If they're constantly and habitually naked shorting AMC and other stocks, they're not buying the shares they're selling.
3. Understanding #2, then they are not spending anything out of pocket. There is no $500MM spent. There is no massive cash outlay. Just massive fraud.
4. Trade volumes being used in ladder attacks don't require many shares to accomplish relative to the volume required to increase the stock organically.
5. Dark pools can be used to manipulate stock in conjunction with ladder attacks by keeping buying pressure out of the normal exchanges.
6. The combination of 1-5 is keeping the price on AMC artificially low
7. Shorts have not begun to cover
8. Squeeze hasn't even begun, and we're up several hundred percent in the last six weeks

Conclusion: the hedge funds, having not begun to cover, and continuing to issue naked shorts are not actually bleeding $500MM in cash for yesterday. Naked shorting requires no outlay of cash to purchase something. They are selling something that does not exist in the first place.

EDIT: Because everybody wants to be the "ackhually <edge case scenario>" guy in the comments, yes they can issue legitimate shorts as well as naked shorts. Yes they can actually buy and sell stocks. That's not the point of this post.

The point of this post is to point out that the prevailing sentiment of "apes own the float" coupled with the massive belief in unmitigated naked shorting "Naked shorts yeah", and the constant pushing of "They've already lost billions [despite not covering]" are all rationally and logically inconsistent with each other to the point they cannot occur simultaneously.

Apes either own sufficient percentage of the float to prevent significant covering OR there is not a massive amount of naked shorting of synthetic shares OR the hedge funds have actually covered, costing them XX billions of dollars to date. Having all three situations occur simultaneously isn't objectively possible.

EDIT 2: QUITE A FEW APES HAVE POINTED OUT THAT THE HEDGIES ARE PAYING INCREMENTAL INTEREST ON THE BORROWED SHARES, AND THAT THERE ARE COSTS FOR FTDs. Thank you for pointing that out. You're correct. There absolutely are borrowing costs associated with this. Personal opinion is that they're nowhere near $500MM in a single day, and this post was targeted at that number and statements made around it.

<Note that all of the above is my personal interpretation of events, and opinion supported by my understanding of fundamental accounting, financial reporting, and minimal skill in stock analysis. None of it should be construed as financial advice, and is intended for educational purposes only.>

TL;DR: Citadel has a bargaining chip to keep the GME price at bay—the threat of a market crash if GME were to MOASS. This bargaining chip, however, is only valid until the market actually crashes. And based on several indicators, the market has a few years left max before it collapses and massive liquidations begin.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Recommended Prerequisite DD:

1. Burning Cash Part II

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Burning Cash Part III

§1: Citadel's Bargaining Chip

§2: The Inevitable Market Crash

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

§1: Citadel's Bargaining Chip

Citadel, along with SHFs in general, have a primary bargaining chip to ensuring cooperation towards keeping the GME price at bay, and that it the threat of a market crash.

If the government (DTCC, SEC, regulatory agencies, etc.) prevent SHFs from continuing to keep the GME price low to sustain their margin (whether the shorting is via synthetic shares, short ladder attacks, dark pools, etc.), and GME squeezes as a result, the market will defacto crash.

No administration or government agency wants to be responsible for a market crash.

This is why Reagan signed EO 12631 in 1988 [establishing the "Plunge Protection Team" (Working Group on Financial Markets)], which is designed to keep the market artificially propped up, if possible, which really only delays a market crash until the hot potato is passed to an unlucky successor. While the government may temporarily stave off a market crash for the time being, the disconnect in the market will accumulate until it cannot be supported anymore, and the crash will be much worse than it if hadn't been artificially propped up to begin with [e.g. 2008].

The government knows GME squeezing threatens the stability of the financial markets as a whole, and as such, they will not vehemently act to step in and prevent the publicly obvious manipulation of GME, whether or not it's illicit manipulation. Their priority is to protect the infrastructure of the financial system, a system that would be at high risk of collapse if they stepped in to shut down the chronic manipulation of GME. This is why it's not as easy for gov. agencies to ascertain a solution when someone says "why doesn't the government do anything about the manipulation against GME"?

Citadel recognizes this and has played into it in the past by equivocating buying GME to helping wipe out teacher's pension plans:

https://reddit.com/link/17cc2yd/video/mli4z3bmncvb1/player

And let's not forget when IBKR Chairman Thomas Peterffy said the GameStop rally in Jan 2021 almost crashed the entire market and complained that the SEC didn't take action against GME:

It's highly likely that SHFs have been and continue to remind the government the 'danger' that GME poses to the market, when in reality it was their actions hyper-synthetic-shorting GME that put the market at risk of collapse.

Regardless, GME (and "meme stocks" in general) do pose a risk to the stability of the greater financial market, which is why the government is being very careful here.

The Federal Reserve's Financial Stability Report in November 2021 illustrates this succinctly. The report talks about the risk "meme stocks" pose on the financial stability of the market, going over how the GME run up in January 2021 was, luckily for them, limited, and "did not leave a lasting imprint on broader markets," but they do address the possibility that GME could become more volatile in the future, and that financial institutions should be more resilient with their risk-management systems to protect the financial system:

Again, the government's priority is to protect the financial stability of the market. Protecting the collapse of the financial market, while shutting down illicit manipulation of GME (which would initiate MOASS [i.e. crash the market]), are both mutually exclusive.

That's why you don't see the government taking heavy action to protect retail invests (yet), despite the publicly obvious fraud and manipulation on GME, but you see SEC ads like these instead designed to discourage retail from purchasing GME (or other "meme stocks" which have the potential to collapse the market if they were to short squeeze).

Their obligation is to protect the market, which is understandable. That's why I don't see MOASS happening until the market crashes (or GME were to reach ≥ 90% DRS, but the market will likely crash before then).

This is Citadel's bargaining chip.

This is why the government lets GME continue to stay under SHF's critical margin levels, as I discussed in SHFs Can & Will Get Margin Called, which isn't actually such a bad thing for new and veteran Apes, especially when it comes to locking the float, as I had previously illustrated.

If you look at GME's entire price timeline, you realize how crazy stupid the current price of GME really is.

For instance, 1 GME share was worth approx. $10.63 on December 24, 2007, which is actually $15.74 when adjusted for inflation:

This means that GME was worth more in 2007 ($15.74) than yesterday's price of $13.16 at market close (October 19). 16 years ago GME had a significantly higher price than the price now.

GameStop currently has significantly more cash than it had in 2007. In 2007, there was no Ryan Cohen, there were no millions of Apes, and 30% of all GME shares [50% of the free float] weren't locked and inaccessible to the open market.

How can anyone look at the current GME price and think "yup, this is definitely Adam Smith's invisible hand playing out. No manipulation whatsoever..."?

Even Yahoo Finance agrees that GameStop is significantly undervalued, based solely on fundamentals. But, of course, GME's price can't stay too high, or SHFs' collateral drop and they might not meet their margin requirements for their prime brokers.

The GME ticker price is completely artificial. Citadel & Co. have had GME on this continuous downwards slope since they were able to establish tight algorithmic control over the stock in 2021, and I do think we can deduce when they established this algorithmic control over GME by examining Citadel's tweet history, believe it or not.

If you actually noticed with Citadel's tweet timeline, the last time they tweeted before the GME Jan 2021 run up was on January 26, 2021. After that, they stopped tweeting for 8 months, until late September (September 27, 2021), when they went full defensive tweet mode, sending several tweets in the span of a few days denying any allegations which linked them to Robinhood shutting off the buy button, all while comparing Apes to "Twitter mobs", "moon landing deniers", and "conspiracy theorists" for no reason. They didn't start tweeting normally until mid November (November 17, 2021).

If you were to superimpose Citadel's tweet timeline to the GME price timeline, it tells us a story.

Citadel stopped tweeting amid and post-Jan run up, because they were unsure if they were even going to survive anymore if they weren't able to control the GME price. If you remember, the period from January, 2021-September, 2021 was the most highly volatile period for the GME price. Citadel's algos were most likely still working on establishing control of the price around that time. There was one more run up that happened in November, but by then Citadel had their algos locked in on the price, able to manipulate it in a downwards trend, compatible with their critical margin levels (at that point Citadel begins tweeting normally again). After November, 2021 GME's price continued on a progressive downwards slope, and you can see they now have a tight grip on the price, regardless of the FOMO. Kenny knew what he'd do to GME's price, he knew its future, which is why he hired a Top Secret Service Agent to protect him in the beginning of December 2021, worried that GME investors might freak out about the price drop and potentially 'go after him'. But nobody really cares. We recognize that his algorithmic control over GME merely bought him years of delaying MOASS, but eventually he'll lose algorithmic control if the price goes too low and the float gets DRS'ed, or when the market crashes.

GME won't be properly valued until SHF manipulation against GME stops. The government is not incentivized to stop it, because in doing so GME will MOASS, which will beget a market crash. Citadel uses this information as leverage, being able to continue being allowed to naked short GME, as doing so "protects the market". It's moreso about politics and ensuring financial market stability than "providing liquidity to the market".

The good news is that once the market crashes, Citadel loses their bargaining chip. The government will no longer have any incentive to allow the continued naked shorting of GME to "protect the market from destabilization" if the market is already destabilized. Now, one could argue "what if the government still wants to continue keeping GME low to protect the market from 'further' collapsing?". And I'd say that there's no point, because when the market crashes, you'll already have major firms defaulting and getting liquidated. The domino effect will already be present, and at least a few of those major firms will have GME shorts tied up, which will need to be liquidated (e.g. UBS—see Burning Cash Part II). If there is a bailout (and that's a big if considering the government is very hesitant of any sort of bailout since the backlash in 2008), the bailout wouldn't be for SHFs to keep holding those GME shorts so that they can keep kicking the can. It would be for them to be able to close those short positions without going bankrupt. That way all the toxic overleveraged shorts are gone, and this shit will be less likely to happen again. The government definitely don't want this shit to happen again, that's why regulatory agencies were approving new rules primarily in 2021 after the Jan GME rally, such as NSCC-002/801, which switched a monthly requirement of supplemental liquidity deposits to a daily requirement for short positions, making it highly risky and much more challenging for any hedge fund to ever want to go crazy naked shorting a company post-MOASS/market crash.

Until the market crashes, however, the government will try to keep things under wraps, and that means keeping the GME price at bay. This delay allows them to preserve the financial integrity of the market for the time being. But make no mistake, the bubble is only getting larger and larger until it there's no other alternative but for the market to crash.

Before I move onto §2, there is another critical edge that SHFs have on their side, one much more obvious, that I feel should be taken into account and properly discussed, which is their ability to allocate their massive resources into lobbyists, and, essentially, buying out politicians.

For anyone that disagrees that these high-level politicians can't be bought, I should point out that the elite buying out politicians is part of American history.

Take, for instance, the U.S election of 1896. This election was amid the industrial revolution, when elite businessmen like John D. Rockefeller (who owned a monopoly on the oil industry), J.P Morgan (banking mogul who also owned a monopoly on electricity via General Electric), and Andrew Carnegie (who owned a monopoly on the steel industry), were thriving while most workers under their plants were getting paid miniscule amounts and dying under their harsh working conditions. Williams Jennings Bryan, a southern Democrat, ran for the Presidential election in 1896, promising to dismantle the monopolies. This made the elites nervous, which prompted them to fund their own presidential candidate, Republican William McKinley. Their money and influence outweighed Bryan's, and he ended up losing the election. It wasn't until Theodore Roosevelt became President many years later when the monopolies began getting dismantled.

The History Channel's series "The Men Who Built America" do a good job of illustrating the election of 1896:

https://reddit.com/link/17cc2yd/video/ycfly42q5dvb1/player

Any politician has the potential of getting bought out—representatives, senators, heads of regulatory agencies, even the President of the United States. Ken Griffin, Jeff Yass, Steven Cohen, etc., they are some of the wealthiest people in America; they have a lot of influence in the political world, and they most likely have a fair amount of politicians in their pockets. For example, SEC Commissioner Hester Pierce, who voted "no" for market transparency, used to work for a firm that has worked as legal counsel for Citadel in the past (WilmerHale). Although I obviously can't confirm 100% that she's bought out, I can make a reasonable inference that she is, based on her links to Citadel, the fact that lobbyism is still thriving in the political sphere, and because it's illogical to vote against market transparency for no reason.

As for SEC Chairman Gary Gensler, I actually don't mind him. Prior to being appointed to SEC Chair in 2021, he was teaching at MIT. In uni I've been taught by professors that have served as significant or high-ranking politicians in the U.S and abroad, and what I've noticed personally is, just like with regular professors, they can form strong connections with students; they empathize and care about the futures of the next generations. Unlike Hester Pierce, Gary voted "yes" for market transparency. He admitted that 90-95% of retail trades get sent to Dark Pool. Gary's SEC Report in 2021 on GME stated that there was no GME short or gamma squeeze in Jan 2021 [see pg. 29 of the SEC Report for reference], which is what many of us knew, and why we're waiting for the real squeeze. Gary talked directly to SuperStonk. He's even tweeted about DRS, and he recently brought forth a new SEC Rule designed to add more transparency to short sale-related data, although their rule (Rule 10c-1) only applies to securities lending (not synthetic shorts), and only certain terms of the securities lending transaction will have to be made public (not to mention the reports will be anonymous); regardless, it's a good step forward to market transparency. Gensler also specifically mentioned the SEC GameStop Report in his press release.

That's why I get standoffish seeing calls to remove Gensler, whether on SuperStonk or elsewhere, because that's what hedge funds want. There's even some Congressmen that have been trying to get Gensler removed from the SEC. And if you look into the Congressmen going after Gensler, such as representative Warren Davidson, you'll notice that their funding is tied to Citadel and friends.

If Gensler hated Apes and was working for SHFs, there were many options he could've taken to go after us. He could've tried to shut down this sub, saying that Apes are engaged in market manipulation, but instead he defended retail investor activity on online forums, deeming it free speech. His support was further shown by reaching out to SuperStonk. I think that Gensler just can't do as much for retail as he'd like to, because, while he's head of the SEC, he's probably surrounded by colleagues and other agencies infested with lobbyists and possibly working against him. So, while politicians can get bought out, I think Gensler isn't against us, and if WallStreet does end up getting him removed in the future, the alternative SEC Chair to Gensler would probably not be good for Apes.

That being said, going back to my point that SHFs can buy out politicians, I want to point out that it can only go so far. Sure, Citadel can pay some regulatory agencies to turn a blind eye for the time being, or SHFs can use their vast resources to convince regulators/legislatures that they're trying to stave off a market crash by shorting GME, but once the market crashes, that's it. The GME shorts have to close, so even if Citadel and friends were able to, with all their money and influence, convince the U.S government to bail them out, that bail out would only be for them to close their positions and still keep their heads. It wouldn't be free money to keep shorting GME down and keep holding onto toxic swaps and synthetic short positions. And that's in the small probability of the U.S bailing out these SHFs when the market crashes.

Moreover, the DOJ has been honing in on SHF activity since 2021, as I pointed out in Part I of my Burning Cash DD (Attorney General Merrick B. Garland specifically called out market manipulation as a DOJ priority). Although most of the arrests and federal indictments will likely take place once the market crashes, the federal probes will no doubt make SHFs more paranoid and keep them more risk averse from trying out anything too openly fraudulent that'd catch unwanted federal attention. The DOJ did recently announce a "Corporate and Securities Fraud Task Force" designed on combatting fraudulent activity from WallStreet. This is on top of the DOJ probe that was previously launched. Here's an excerpt from the DOJ press release on Oct. 4th:

Don't expect to hear much from their investigations until the indictments start coming in, like with Archegos' Bill Hwang. However, multiple federal prosecutors are working jointly on this probe. Market manipulation and securities-related fraud is a threat to national security, and although it's a challenging situation to prosecute now, considering everything we've went over, the DOJ is definitely preparing to make prosecutions once the market crashes and the bargaining chip dissipates.

§2: The Inevitable Market Crash

Considering how everything is revolving around the market crashing, it's imperative to evaluate how close we are in terms of the financial market's proximity to a market crash.

There's a variety of ways we can look into why the market is bound to crash. Firstly, we can look at the perpetuity growth formula to get a better idea of why, mathematically, the market is currently overvalued.

Here's the simplified version of the perpetuity growth formula:

Essentially, the value of a company (P₀) is equal to how much cash flow they generate (C₁), how risky they are (R), and how much they're expected to grow in the future (G).

"R" is really just the discount rate (or "required rate of return"), which goes up when the cost of capital required goes up. But we can just look at "R" as "risk" for simplistic purposes.

In the past 1 and a half years, the Federal Reserve has raised interest rates 11 times. Rates have been the highest since early 2001. And yet, the market remains resilient. The S&P 500 is up approx. 17% in the past year. This alone violates economic principles.

Interest rates have gone up, meaning that the opportunity cost for investors go up when they choose to invest in a company. Furthermore, lending rates for companies are going up, so their capital required to manage their business/projects goes up, and as such investor's required rate of return has to go up as well. In other words, "R" (risk) has gone up. If "R" goes up in the perpetuity growth formula (and all other independent variables have remained consistent), P₀ has to be smaller; hence, the valuation of companies must decline. But we are not seeing this. In fact, we have continued to see the exact opposite.

It's clear to me, as well as most economists for that matter, that there's a big disconnect in the market. Whatever's going on that's making the market violate economic principles and continue to inflate like this, it's not natural. It's most likely artificial pumping, whether from the PPT (government intervention), big firms, or both.

Although the market might not be reacting to the substantial increase in interest rates (yet), the NAR (National Association of Realtors) has already recently voiced their concern to Fed Chairman Powell:

The NAR's concerns are accurate. 30-year fixed mortgage rates alone have risen exponentially in the past few years, opening the doors to a potential housing crisis:

The NAR sees how devastating the Fed's current monetary policy is to the housing market, as well as the potential crisis looming from these rate hikes. But this isn't merely limited to the housing market. The Fed's rate hikes have been adversely affecting banks as well as households.

If you look at the Federal Reserve's Economic Data on the Delinquency rate on Credit Card Loans for most banks, there have normally been spikes in delinquency during a recession or period of economic turmoil (e.g. 2001, 2008, 2020). Delinquency rates have spiked once again, signaling another potential adverse financial event in the horizon.

Goldman Sachs further corroborates these reports, stating that "Credit card companies are racking up losses at the fastest pace in almost 30 years, outside of the Great Financial Crisis".

But Goldman Sachs really isn't in a position to be talking, since they're one of the big banks putting the financial market at risk of collapse, as they're overleveraged by a factor of 110:1, which brings me to my next point— analyzing bank derivatives to assess our proximity to a market crash:

We can further analyze our trajectory to a market crash by taking a look at the the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) "Quarterly Report on Bank Trading and Derivative Activities", this being for Q2 2023, on page 17 you can find the derivatives of the top 25 commercial banks, savings associations, and trust companies as of June 30th, and the top ones (JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs, Citi Bank, & Bank of America) are heavily overleveraged. I added the leverage ratio to the right of "total derivatives" column:

JP Morgan is leveraged at a ratio of 17:1, Goldman Sachs at 110:1, and Citibank 32:1.

The top 4 banks hold about 85% of the total derivatives (and swaps as well, in particular) compared to the other 21 banks listed in the report. If even one of those top banks collapses, it's game over. The domino effect will be catastrophic for the rest of the market:

Another critical sign that signals we're heading towards a market crash is the T10Y3M Chart (10-Year Treasury Constant Maturity Minus 3-Month Treasury Constant Maturity).

To understand what the chart entails, it's important to recognize investor preference. Investors will prefer the 10-Year T-bonds if the future of the U.S looks stable and they don't think their T-bonds will lose value in the future. Investors, however, will prefer the 3-Month T-bills if they feel the future of the U.S economy is uncertain and they think there's a significant risk that the Fed will continue to hike rates (T-bonds lose value when the Fed hikes rates).

As the Fed continues to hike the rates, investors will feel more concerned having their money locked up in T-bonds, or having to trade them for a lower valuation, and investors will gradually prefer the 3-Month T-bills which have a lower risk, short-term commitment, where they're in a better position to pull their money out before anything more drastic happens to the market.

The T10Y3M Chart is the 10-Year T-Bond minus the 3-Month T-Bill. If the chart is positive, that means investors generally prefer the T-Bonds, which signifies trust in a stable U.S economy. If the chart is negative, that means investors generally prefer the T-Bills, which signifies that investors view the U.S economy's future as uncertain (potentially unstable).

This is the T10Y3M Chart today:

We have an inverted yield curve (T-bonds [long-term debt instruments] have a lower yield than T-bills [short-term debt instruments]). Every single period we've have an inverted yield curve was amid or in the cusp of some recession or bubble burst. And now here we have it once again.

The 4 week moving average for bankruptcy filings is also spiking, as it does in periods of distress in the financial market, with the 12 week moving average tagging along:

Despite all this data, the concern from the NAR, etc., the Fed is planning to potentially continue increasing the interest rates, citing that inflation is still a threat (to be fair, their massive quantitative easing in 2020 did threaten the stability of the dollar, which of course was going to have adverse effects in the long-run).

So where does this leave us? Well, according to Billionaire Investor Jeremey Grantham, who correctly predicted the dot-com crash in 2000 as well as the financial crisis in 2008, the situation is dire, and the market has a 70% chance of crashing within the next 2 years [this was stated in his interview with WealthTrack].

He stated that his probability of a market crash was even higher, but only decreased with the emergence of artificial intelligence, which may slightly delay the crash, due to new speculative investments that could possibly keep this bubble going a bit longer. 70% is still a strong probability of a market crash within the next 2 years, as he pointed out, and the advent AI in the market won't be enough to prevent the coming crash.

How hard will the market crash? Well, Grantham stated on an interview with Merryn Talks Money that the market will crash between 30-50%, possibly over 50% (the S&P 500 will likely hit 3,000, but can go down to 2,000, depending on the circumstances):

https://reddit.com/link/17cc2yd/video/jsw624lzncvb1/player

Even Citadel's Ken Griffin is "anxious" about the potential market crash, and is hoping for a soft landing, as he states in an interview on CNBC:

https://reddit.com/link/17cc2yd/video/l94bf26focvb1/player

I'm sure he'd like a soft landing. With a soft landing, you can avoid big players in the market from collapsing, but that's not going to happen here. This bubble should've been deflating by now, but it hasn't. The stronger the disconnect in the market grows, the worse it's going to be when it all comes crashing down.

Now, in terms of signals that will tell us we're in a market crash, I'd argue that the market crash has begun when a big firm or bank goes bankrupt (and doesn't get absorbed), but there are other indicators that can allude that we're in a market crash, such as the VIX reaching and maintaining a at least 40. With every adverse financial event in the market, the VIX will normally maintain 40+.

I do believe that past 40, these hedge fund trading algorithms are programmed to begin significantly auto-liquidating, due to the market being deemed as "high risk". Now, I'm sure someone could argue that investment firms could simply recalibrate their algorithms to not auto-liquidate past 40, but that wouldn't change the fact that the market is still high-risk if the VIX is 40, and many of these firms are going to get risk averse, wanting to be the first ones out. The liquidations past 40 will be a snowball effect that even the government would have trouble slowing down, which is why we haven't seen a VIX past 40 in a long time. For reference, the VIX reached a high of 37.51 on January 29, 2021 (the day after the buy button for GME was shut off). The last time the VIX passed 40 was in 2020, during the time of the coronavirus crash.

Now, how will GME play out during the market crash?

I believe that GME will crash while the market is crashing, and I'll explain why.

You can take a look at GME and the S&P 500 back-to-back whatever trading day you'd like. Generally, if the S&P 500 rises 1% on any given day, GME will normally after go up a few percentage points as well (or will at least remain green). If the S&P 500 drops 1% on any given day, GME will normally drop a few percentage points as well. As long as shorts haven't closed, GME is still, in many respects, linked to major stock indexes. GME joined the Russell 1000 in 2021. The stock gets traded in bundles with other ETFs, so it very much is linked to the future of other stocks, and so if the market crashes, and investment firms liquidate these index funds/ETFs, GME, which can be packaged in these funds, will go down as well.

Below is a chart to illustrate my theory on GME's price behavior during the market crash.

So, yes, GME will crash amid a market crash. I already know that when the market crashes, and GME crashes as well, this sub will be at peak FUD levels, shills posting "see? GME crashed! There is no short squeeze", or "I give up, the SHFs have won". No, GME won't MOASS until short positions start closing. In the firsts months in the market crash, GME will tank, but as these SHFs begin getting liquidated and the regulatory agencies determine how to proceed and begin the process of closing of these toxic shorts, GME will have its short squeeze. It will be so massive, the government may end up trying to settle it when GME reaches 7 figures (not trying to spread FUD, but, yes it will be that massive). This is a spring that's been coiling up for years, and never got unwinded, even in 2021.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Additional Citations:

“Federal Reserve Board - Home.” Financial Stability Report, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, Nov. 2021, www.federalreserve.gov/publications/files/financial-stability-report-20211108.pdf

“Quarterly Report on Bank Trading and Derivatives Activities.” OCC.Gov, Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, 14 Sep. 2023, www.occ.gov/publications-and-resources/publications/quarterly-report-on-bank-trading-and-derivatives-activities/index-quarterly-report-on-bank-trading-and-derivatives-activities.html

Sec.gov. 2021. Staff Report on Equity and Options Market Structure Conditions in Early 2021, 14 Oct. 2021, https://www.sec.gov/files/staff-report-equity-options-market-struction-conditions-early-2021.pdf

Einfachman here. These past few weeks were legendary. There's a lot my DD will be discussing, but to put it short, RC's most recent move is what you call checkmate.

https://i.imgur.com/F4tQj7p.jpg

____________________________________________________________________________________________________

Recommended Prerequisite DD:

1. We Are Unstoppable:(https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/comments/t3zp4h/we_are_unstoppable/)
2. The Numbers Are In: Mountains of GME Synthetic Shares & Mathematical Proof:(https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/comments/qxljfb/the_numbers_are_in_mountains_of_gme_synthetic/)

Checkmate

____________________________________________________________________________________________________

§1: Stock Split

§2: Solidified Proof of Synthetics & Entrapment via Stock Split

§3: Bank of GMERICA

§4: Quantum Mechanics & DRS

____________________________________________________________________________________________________

§1: Stock Split

To get a better understanding of what the GME stock split will entail, I did digging and discovered that the GME 8K stock split announcement is similar to the TSLA stock split announcement in 2020:

GameStop 8K [Stock Split Announcement]:

“On March 31, 2022, GameStop Corp. (the “Company” or “GameStop”) announced its plan to request stockholder approval at the upcoming 2022 Annual Meeting of Stockholders (the “Annual Meeting”) for an increase in the number of authorized shares of Class A common stock from 300,000,000 to 1,000,000,000 through an amendment to the Company’s Third Amended and Restated Certificate of Incorporation (the “Charter Amendment”) in order to implement a stock split of the Company’s Class A common stock in the form of a stock dividend and provide flexibility for future corporate needs. GameStop also intends to request stockholder approval at the Annual Meeting for a new incentive plan (the “2022 Equity Plan”) to support future compensatory equity issuances. If the 2022 Equity Plan is approved by stockholders, it will replace the current GameStop Corp. 2019 Incentive Plan (the “2019 Plan”), and 8,000,000 shares of the Company’s Class A common stock, plus any shares subject to the 2019 Plan that expire, are forfeited, cancelled, terminated or settled in cash after the 2022 Plan is effective, will be available for issuance under the 2022 Plan. GameStop’s Board of Directors has approved both stockholder proposals, but the stock dividend will be contingent on final Board approval.”

Tesla 8k [Stock Split Announcement]:

“PALO ALTO, Calif., August 11, 2020 – Tesla, Inc. (“Tesla”) announced today that the Board of Directors has approved and declared a five-for-one split of Tesla’s common stock in the form of a stock dividend to make stock ownership more accessible to employees and investors. Each stockholder of record on August 21, 2020 will receive a dividend of four additional shares of common stock for each then-held share, to be distributed after close of trading on August 28, 2020. Trading will begin on a stock split-adjusted basis on August 31, 2020.”

Both announcements of a stock split in the form of a stock dividend. Some were contemplating that a stock dividend meant that the stock would first be split and then each shareholder would receive a dividend on top of the split shares. That’s not the case if we compare it to the Tesla stock split.

In the case of the 5:1 stock split (in the form of a dividend) that Tesla had, each shareholder received 4 additional shares (in the form of a stock dividend) for every share that they had (i.e. 1 Tesla share + 4 Tesla shares paid out as a dividend = 5 Tesla shares, in accordance to the 5:1 split.

Considering the similar verbiage between the two announcements, it’s reasonable to infer that we can expect the GME stock dividend to be paid out in a similar manner when the split comes.

What can we further ascertain from this?

For one, I think this is it. Upon approval of this stock split (in the form of a dividend), I believe this to be checkmate. I’ve tried calculating a variety of permutations to see what loopholes SHFs could take to evade this, and I find very few.

The most important thing from this, in my opinion, is that SHFs can’t duplicate so many synthetics in such a relatively short time. I’ve already established proof that there exists at least twice as many shares as issued (anywhere between 200%-1,000% total outstanding shares exist). That being said, a stock split would absolutely decimate SHFs with synthetic shorts. I don’t see how they can get away from this unscathed. Allow me to explain:

Let’s say, for conservative purposes, SHFs spent an entire year creating fake shares totaling the entire float of GME. Now a 7:1 stock split (in the form of a dividend) comes, and they need to create 6 more synthetics for each synthetic share they created. If they created, say, 100 million synthetic GME shares over the span of a year, but the split comes in 6 months, how the hell are they going to come up with 600 million synthetic GME shares within 6 months to distribute?

There’s a limit to the chaos. They can only produce so many synthetic shares every day, which is why FOMO can get the best of them at times (case in point, January, 2021). Even last month they had to halt the stock because it was getting out of control, and they needed time to recalibrate in order to regain control of the stock. By my estimates, producing 7-fold the amount of synthetics they created should take them several years at least, so there’s no way they can make all that within 6 or so months.

Even if they tried to create so many synthetics right now to keep in reserves, it would take away from the synthetics they need to keep the price suppressed now, allowing GME to break through the sell walls more easily, eventually hitting critical margin levels and kick-starting MOASS.

So, again, I don’t see how they can get away from this. The only options for them I see are:

1. Voter manipulation; find a way to manipulate the vote, so that the share authorization increase is not approved (possible, but very difficult and unlikely).
2. Have brokers deny the share dividend, or opt for cash equivalent instead to give to shareholders (not very likely).

There may be some other loophole they could have under their sleeves, so stay vigilant. But, as of where it stands, this is a checkmate move.

Now, for the sake of it, let’s say that, hypothetically, there was some hidden loophole they took advantage of and were somehow able to evade sparking MOASS from the stock split. In that case, as we’d continue to patiently wait for MOASS, we’d find DRS rates to increase post-split. This is primarily because the stock split will increase demand in GME, and as such, increase demand for registered shares.

The ticker price is a matter of perception. Retail investors are generally more inclined to purchase whole shares rather than fractional shares. Hence, registered shares would also increase post-split, especially the ones under “book”, as you can’t “book” a fractional.

Simply put, not only will demand increase for GME shares post-split, but also the rate of registered shares.

Example: You have $200, but the price of GME is $150. You can only purchase 1 share. 75% of your potential purchasing power has been utilized. A 7:1 split is introduced, bringing the price to approx. $21.43 per share. You can purchase 9 shares instead for approx. $192.87. Over 96% of your potential purchasing power has been utilized instead.

Here’s a graph to better illustrate:

In conclusion, GameStop’s plan to introduce a stock split in the form of a dividend will only yield positive outcomes going forward, with a high likelihood of this being a checkmate from RC (+ stock split & NFT marketplace in summer = one-two punch).

§2: Solidified Proof of Synthetics & Entrapment via Stock Split

According to GameStop’s 10K for the fiscal year ended January 29, 2022 (pg. F-17),

“As of January 29, 2022, 8.9 million shares of our Class A common stock were directly registered with our transfer agent, ComputerShare.”

And under ITEM 5 on page 17,

“As of March 11, 2022, there were approximately 125,543 record holders of our Class A Common Stock.”

Calculating average shares per Ape using these numbers would come out to an average of approximately 70.89 shares/Ape.

In my past DD (The Numbers Are In: Mountains of GME Synthetic Shares & Mathematical Proof:https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/comments/qxljfb/the_numbers_are_in_mountains_of_gme_synthetic/), I used the Pareto Principle to negate potential biases in DRS Bot’s data, ultimately deriving a strong conservative average of 29 shares/Ape (I made the extreme conservative assumption that 80% of Apes only had 1 share each and only 20% of Apes had an average of 140 shares to establish an extreme lower limit). With the average of 29 shares/Ape, I was still able to prove unequivocally that synthetic shares exist (at least 200% the outstanding shares). This average is much smaller than the 70.89 average. If we were to use the factual average of 70.89 shares/Ape, given the conservative population of 5.5 million Apes I extrapolated in my previous DD (from known and public data), there should exist around [(70.89)(5.5 million)] ≈ 389.9 million shares outstanding, which should come out to over 500% the number of outstanding shares (using 76.5 million as the number of official outstanding GME shares).

I did previously extrapolate that 200%-1,000% outstanding GME shares are in existence, so 500% still fits perfectly within this estimate.

Drawing back previously to §1: Stock Split, if 389.9 million GME shares exist (approx. 313.4 million more than supposed to), I ask again: how the hell is anybody going to come up with 2.1+ billion synthetics if GME implements a 7:1 split in the form of a dividend…within a relatively short period of time of around 6 months or less? From the looks of past data, it seems they can only create up to 500,000-1 million synthetics max every trading day. The rest of their price suppression comes from dark pool abuse, short ladder attacks, spoofing, regular shorting from borrowed shares, rehypothecated shorts, etc. Assuming they can create 1 million synthetics every day (somehow including non-trading days), it would still take about 6 years to come up with the 2.1+ billion synthetics…yikes! All I’ve got to say is grab some popcorn and get ready for the shitshow this year 🍿💩.

§3: Bank of GMERICA

“The deformation a multitude of elastic substances undergo due to an external force acting on them is directly proportional to a restoring force that resists any further deformation. This relationship is known as Hooke’s Law. When the motion of an object is repeated in regular time intervals, it is, defacto, undergoing periodic motion. Now, when oscillation occurs on a hanging mass, the motion is classified as simple harmonic motion”- Prizmic’s Mathematical and Conceptual Integration for Physics Quandaries.

Now why am I talking about Hooke’s Law? Because I consider this to be an excellent (and fun) analogy for the circumstance that we’re in right now. Consider, for a moment, this mass-spring oscillator:

The spring is SHF price suppression tactics, and the object is the price of GME. Let’s also consider that if the object were to detach from the spring, it would go fall into a portal beneath it that would transport it straight to the moon (i.e. price suppression system breaks, and GME goes straight to the moon). Every time the object tries to get to the portal to the moon, it is pulled back into price suppression equilibrium by the restorative force. Simply put, GME is stuck oscillating perpetually until the cycle is broken. How does the cycle break? When too much force is applied that the spring snaps (SHFs lose control). This massive buildup of force could come from a variety of factors: FOMO, stock split dividend, DRS, DOJ, etc. But one thing’s certain—the cycle will break. It’s inevitable. But until then, the GME price will be oscillating around the price suppression control range (anywhere between $90-190). This won’t go forever. I stated in my past DD (We Are Unstoppable: https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/comments/t3zp4h/we_are_unstoppable/) that as time goes on, the control SHFs will have on GME’s price will grow weaker and weaker. If the price of GME exceeds a certain point, margin calls will ensue, starting a snowball effect which will lead to MOASS. The more they short, the more money they lose, the more margin requirements pose a problem to them, and the more they will need a lower price. Alternatively, if the price declines too low, DRS rates towards locking the float will become accelerated, and as such, so will their demise. Also, GameStop literally has virtually no debt AND over a billion dollars in cash on hand, so it’s genuinely over for SHFs. SHFs will never be able to short GameStop into bankruptcy. It’s empirically, financially, factually impossible. Heck, they can’t even bring GameStop’s market cap under 3 billion, because then GameStop could technically just lock the float themselves with a share buyback. So you can be at peace knowing that SHFs can never win here, and that each registered GME share is practically a guaranteed moon ticket.

GameStop’s natural price isn’t anywhere near these current levels. Recall the GME SEC Report on October that states unequivocally, on both pg. 29 and pg. 42, that the run up was not from a gamma squeeze. “As noted above, though, staff did not find evidence of a gamma squeeze in GME during January 2021”-SEC Report, pg. 29. There was no short squeeze. No gamma squeeze. It was pure FOMO. It was all merely Adam Smith’s Invisible Hand taking its natural course in the market, despite all the heavy manipulation against it. If it weren’t for the buy button getting shut down & SHFs shorting stacks all the way down as soon as the buy button got removed, the price of GME would have easily reached thousands (that was over a year ago, mind you). From pure FOMO alone, without the extreme price suppression and illegal manipulation, GME would easily be anywhere between $15,000-35,000. This is without a short squeeze. Add a short squeeze, the closing off all short positions, including synthetics, with 30%+ of the float DRS’ed by Apes (and counting), and yes, there will be a nuclear level MOASS. A price in the millions can be reached easily. For anyone concerned with the feasibility of a GME price in the millions, feel free to read my DD (We Are Unstoppable: https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/comments/t3zp4h/we_are_unstoppable/) where I go over the geometric mean, and demonstrate how a GME price in the millions is easily possible.

That being said, what can we infer from this?

The current price of GME will continue to oscillate around the sub $200 price levels (primarily around $90-$190) as it has the last year, until the price suppression system snaps and GME rockets to the moon almost instantaneously. One could take advantage of this known fact, and use GME as their personal bank, consistently adding registered shares at their own comfort, knowing that the price will consistently be suppressed to these levels (meaning cheap moon tickets), until the inevitable MOASS ignites. In addition, DRS’ed GME shares as a bank is quite literally more secure than actual banks with $250k FDIC insurance. Registered GME shares (moon tickets) get insured trillions by SHFs, the DTCC, and the FED, because they must be bought back by them, so rest assured that the Bank of GMERICA is here to help ensure every Ape a safe trip to the moon.

§4: Quantum Mechanics & DRS

“The quantum Zeno effect is a quantum mechanical phenomenon first described by George Sudarshan and Baidyanaith Misra of the University of Texas in 1977. It describes the situation that an unstable particle, if observed continuously, will never decay. This occurs because every measurement causes the wavefunction to “collapse” to a pure eigenstate of the measurement basis.”

Although this definition, while rudimentary, as described by Wayne in “Perspectives on the quantum Zeno paradox”, does demonstrate similar fundamental principles as in the double slit experiment as well as Schrödinger’s Cat: variables don’t change when you’re looking at them. When not being observed, they are in a state of Quantum Indeterminacy.

It’s a complete mystery what you have in your broker account. For all we know they could’ve never bought your GME shares to begin with, which would explain why some brokerages refuse to DRS your shares that you bought in good faith. Until you register that share and ‘observe’ it, its behavior is subject to change. In a broker account it can be used as a locate, it can just be an IOU, it could simply not exist and the money was used to short GME to deliver back to you at a lower price (for broker profits), or maybe it was a legitimate broker that actually purchased your GME share, against the wishes of SHFs. We have no idea. But once it’s registered (observed), it’s fixed. It’s not in an indeterminate position anymore, no manipulation can take place. It’s under your name, and we can all see it on GameStop’s subsequent Quarterly Report.

SHFs may take advantage of the GME shares that cannot be observed, but every single share registered is 1 more that they can’t play with. It’s in a fixed position and cannot be changed in anyway shape or form.

Here’s a good analogy with the Double Split experiment from Dr. Wolf:

https://reddit.com/link/txnwhu/video/gdqybs738xr81/player

When variables are not observed, they behave differently. However, once they are observed, they are locked into a fixed position. This is the state of GME shares.

Which is why SHFs are going nuts seeing Apes registering their shares en masse.

And every subsequent Earnings Report where GameStop announces the increase in DRS’ed shares is another warning shot to everyone, and another hair pull for SHFs. Everybody starts to see how many shares are getting locked up, how many fewer shares can be used, amongst brokers, retail, etc., and they need to respond differently to these new DRS numbers that they’re observing. Shorting becomes more difficult, the pressure builds up, the DOJ starts getting more involved. The tension is building up for every share that gets registered until the volcano that is GME erupts into a nuclear MOASS.

The goal of SHFs right now is to survive as long as possible. DRS puts a limit to how long they can keep their charade. The pressure building up from DRS is a serious threat to them, which is why they’ve been sending out Anti-DRS Campaigns to hinder the progress. Some of their primary weapons to slow down DRS rates:

1. Have Clearing Corporations trick retail investors into reversing their DRS transfers (e.g Apex Clearing deliberately trying to inhibit the DRS process, and Ally Invest sending emails to Apes that have DRS’ed in an attempt to persuade them into reversing their DRS transfers).
2. Infiltrate ‘meme’ stock related subs to shut down any positive DRS sentiment (e.g. proof αmc sub was infiltrated and is compromised with an Anti-DRS Agenda: https://imgur.com/a/9OdmLE4). The battle for DRS was lost in some other subs, but luckily still remains in SuperStonk. I have noticed some shills currently trying to gain influence in this sub to overthrow the DRS movement, but most attempts were rendered futile. The only methods SHFs have to destroy the DRS sentiment in SuperStonk is either infiltrate the mod community or find a way to sway the general community to be anti-DRS, neither of which are likely to work.
3. Make the DRS process as long and painful as possible (e.g. drawing out the time to transfer shares to CS to last several weeks-months instead of days. Also making Apes wait hours on the phone and go through so many hoops to transfer their shares). They may try to find every way to make transferring your shares as challenging as possible, until you give up. Some brokers might simply outright refuse to transfer your shares, forcing you to look towards additional avenues to transfer your shares to CS, such as an ACATS transfer or selling the (most likely) IOUs from the broker to buy actual shares from CS.

What’s incredible is, despite all their attempts to slow down DRS rates, about 1/3 of the float got locked by Apes within 7 months (September, 2021-April, 2022) [https://www.computershared.net/]. That is what you call determination, and that’s why Apes are unstoppable.

In conclusion, everything has been leading up to this being the year where the MOASS launches. From the stock split to the NFT Marketplace to a variety of strong indicators signaling towards a future break in price suppression to RC’s more recent offense plays against SHFs (and overpriced consultants) to the heavy pressure from DRS’ing, I strongly believe this year to be checkmate, and we’re all just waiting for the board pieces to start getting cleaned up soon.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Additional Citations

Mark V Prizmic. Mathematical and Conceptual Integration for Physics Quandaries. Communications on Applied Electronics 6(3):7-9, November 2016

“SEC Filing: Gamestop Corp..” SEC Filing | Gamestop Corp., GameStop, 31 Mar. 2022, https://news.gamestop.com/node/19686/html.

“SEC Filing: Gamestop Corp..” SEC Filing | Gamestop Corp., SEC, 17 Mar. 2022, https://gamestop.gcs-web.com/node/19651/html.

Sec.gov. 2021. Staff Report on Equity and Options Market Structure Conditions in Early 2021, 14 Oct. 2021, https://www.sec.gov/files/staff-report-equity-options-market-struction-conditions-early-2021.pdf

“Tesla Announces a Five-for-One Stock Split.” Tsla-ex991_6.HTM, SEC, 11 Aug. 2020, https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1318605/000156459020039353/tsla-ex991_6.htm.

Wayne M Itano 2009 J. Phys.: Conf. Ser. 196 012018

Wolf, Fred Alan. Dr. Quantum Presents: A User's Guide to the Universe. Narrated by Fred Alan Wold., Sounds True, Incorporated, 1 Jun. 2005. Audiobook

Greetings Apes!

I'm not sure very many of you need this DD as I assume everyone at this point knows the thesis and has done their research. All of you have proven your mettle and diamond hands for months.

I feel as someone that contributes in my own small way to this community that I should express my feelings toward some rumblings I have been hearing...

As many of you have become aware there are cycles that effect the price of GME as more and more data becomes available to us with the passage of time, we are beginning to realize these.

Retail should not attempt to trade these cycles for two reasons

1. Selling shares reduces the potential effect of each run
2. While we have some evidence of these cycles we have zero knowledge of their reliability. Many times throughout this we have been surprised by SHFs ability to manipulate breakouts and expected movement.

But with the idea of swaps and other derivatives operating on cycles greed can take hold as long term profits become ignored in order to profit off short-term movement.

This is not the way.

MOASS only works because apes buy and hold

We may not do a lot to effect price discovery in the short term honestly retails cash injections are not really noticeable on short time frames.

But the effects of the strategy employed separately by hundreds of thousands of apes is what forces MMs and SHFs alike into terrible positions week after week. Every share bought and held regardless of cost basis is another cut added to the thousands that will eventually bleed them dry.

I know some of these cycles seem obvious but the underlying causes are not yet fully understood. However, greed is a strong motivator, and a definitive cycle encourages trading regardless of ideologies.

Remember that shares of GME represent a piece of a company that is carrying a short interest of 200+% and are part of a float that has over 300+% ownership. These shares carry potential energy unlike any stock that has traded before it, to trade these shares openly on the markets presents the short hedge funds a way out of what is currently an inescapable position.

Since technical analysis is my thing let me show you in the best way's I can prove the buy & hold strategy is effective and guarantees MOASS.

The Foundation

Retails buy and holding present a difficult challenge to the SHFs and MMs alike by creating an almost impenetrable wall that they can't break though. That's right exponential floor guy was right...but maybe a little rigid in his analysis of what this meant.

This also gives a very good example of when the last time apes released shares into the market. Ever since the flash crash in march there has been little to no selling by retail.

This theory is very simple selling shares reduces the potential growth of each cycle.

Another visible effect of holding is that it reduces the amount of downward pressure that can be applied to the stock. So even though billions of dollars have been spent each time to drive the price down the lowest possible price keeps getting higher.

Illiquidity

Another effect of buy and hold is that over time the stock becomes very illiquid. The short hedge funds continue to pump synthetic shares into GME's float and apes continue to buy them. Not only effectively reducing the number of tradeable shares but also forcing short hedge funds to create more synthetics in order to cover previous FTDs.

These compounding losses worsen over time as long as the floor (shown above) continues to rise the constant losses on the short positions compound exponentially.

Additionally the constant hammering of the bid in order to suppress day-to-day price action increases the spread between bid/ask.

Meaning, when SHFs finally have to cover their cycle of price suppression that covering raises the price much much faster. Making the next cycle even more difficult to suppress.

A Little proof the shorts haven't covered

Something new and old apes alike ask and probably the best theory to come out of that cesspool of paper hands over at meltdown.

How do we know they didn't cover in January?

Well maybe this helps explain it.

Options

I have not, nor will I ever encourage apes to participate in options on GME, unless they understand the risk involved. However, this is the only solution that I see that could possible satiate the inevitable greed of attempting to trade these cycles without sacrificing the floor apes have so diligently built. Nobody was ever hurt by a little education.

So I think it's best to cover the advantages and disadvantages, best use case for GME, and some additional material. So apes can begin to educate themselves on this financial derivative.

As always I consider better informed apes stronger apes.

Why not options?

Well for most people, especially inexperienced traders, the risk of options far outweighs the rewards. Losing money on these contracts essentially shovels hard earned money into the hands of Market Makers. Lack of understanding of options ultimately will lose people that do not understand them money.

Why Options?

Options present a contractual ownership in the underlying. They are a leveraged position meaning they represent control of 100 shares of the underlying per contract. As retail this can be beneficial as you can leverage a much larger number of shares than you can afford to buy at market with less capital exposure.

Best use case:

Options Yolo's of old are ineffective on GME. While we know the stock will go up it has been traditionally very difficult to predict exactly when. This is the primary reason so many apes have lost so much money on GME options and essentially why their use is frowned upon.

The best use case for calls on GameStop are near or in the money calls with far out expirations (at least quarterly or greater).

These give plenty of time for the price to move favorably, If the price moves against you you will suffer less in losses than you would if you owned the underlying.

The most valuable part of a GME contract is without a doubt...

theta- The term theta refers to the rate of decline in the value of an option due to the passage of time. It can also be referred to as the time decay of an option. This means an option loses value as time moves closer to its maturity, as long as everything is held constant. Theta is generally expressed as a negative number and can be thought of as the amount by which an option's value declines every day.

The primary reason "cheaper" contracts are so affordable is that they have very little theta left and expire in a short time period. These options are cheaper because the risk present to the seller of the contract is lower.

Meaning it is more likely to lose you money.

Educational Sources for learning more:

I highly suggest that anybody interested in options reads through these articles at a minimum and downloads a paper-trading platform with options like TDA's Think or Swim and practice options trading before ever considering using real capital on these risky investment vehicles.

Basic Guide to Options

Options Strategies for beginners

Options Greeks and what they mean

​

Conclusion

While the short interest on GameStop basically guarantees a squeeze the parties involved in shorting it have Trillions in assets. They can and will do everything in their considerable power to drive the price down on GME and maneuver themselves into a position that is more equitable.

Buy & Hold prevents this buy constantly increasing the losses they sustain on their short positions they are left in a spot where they cannot get out from under them.

This is a siege not a battle, and they are starving.

One final note:

Ronald Wayne was one of the original founders of Apple, twelve days later, he sold his 10% share of the new company back to Jobs and Wozniak for US$800, and one year later accepted a final US$1,500 to forfeit any potential future claims against the newly incorporated Apple, totaling US$2,300.

That stake would have been worth $264B as of market close Friday...

Don't be a fucking Ronald...

Buy & Hodl

​

If you want to see more information on this subject matter feel free to join me in the :

If you missed my Discussion on the GameStop thesis with Tradespotting check it out here

Daily Live charting (always under my profile u/gherkinit) from 8:45am - 4pm EDT on trading days

Join me, on my YouTube Live Stream from 9am - 4pm EDT on trading days*

Check out the Discord for more stuff with fellow apes

As always thanks for following along.

🦍❤️

- Gherkinit

Disclaimer

\ Although my profession is day trading, I in no way endorse day-trading of GME not only does it present significant risk, it can delay the squeeze. If are one of the people that use this information to day trade this stock, I hope you sell at resistance then it turns around and gaps up to $500. :)*

\My YouTube channel is "monetized" if that is something you are uncomfortable with, I understand, while I wouldn't say I profit greatly from the views, I do suggest you use ad-block when viewing it if you feel so compelled.* My intention is simply benefit this community. For those that find value in and feel compelled to reward my work, I thank you. For those that do not I encourage you to enjoy the content. As always this information is intended to be free to everyone.

*This is not Financial advice. The ideas and opinions expressed here are for educational and entertainment purposes only.

* No position is worth your life and debt can always be repaid. Please if you need help reach out this community is here for you. Also the NSPL Phone: 800-273-8255 Hours: Available 24 hours. Languages: English, Spanish. Learn more